


Croissants and Coffee

by Hes_Beauty_Hes_Jason_Grace



Series: Solangelo works [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Californian Will!, Eventual relationship, M/M, Slow Burn, demigays, me pretending to understand how America works, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-27 08:46:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 22,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7611406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hes_Beauty_Hes_Jason_Grace/pseuds/Hes_Beauty_Hes_Jason_Grace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Solangelo coffee shop au where Nico is a regular and Will is a waiter who shows Nico a little bit too much kindness for his comfort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Croissants and Coffee

Nico was sitting in his favourite coffee shop, reading a book while he waited for the usual waiter to take his regular order. He knew without looking up that said server was standing there, and was about to request the usual when he was cut off.

"Short Chestnut Praline latte with whole milk and whip coming right up."

He went back to his book and barely even noticed that the waiter was back again. The blond set the latte and a buttered croissant in front of Nico, which startled him enough, and then he sat down in the other chair.

He looked up from his book.

" I didn't order a croissant."

"I ordered one for you."

He glared up at the server; this was definitely weird. No one in real life bought croissants for total strangers. Well, maybe not a complete stranger, but they had never talked about anything but his order and the bill. He didn't even know the server's name and he doubted that he knew his. And Nico didn't like any of it.

"Well, sunshine," the blond continued with a sassy grin. (A voice in the back of Nico's head noticed that he looked like the sun when he grinned like that. He told the voice to shut up.)

"You looked like you could use something to live on besides coffee. So I ordered it for you."

"You didn't have to do that. You don't even know me," Nico said, trying the push the croissant back towards the blonde's side of the table. It was quickly pushed back again.

"No, I didn't, but I did. And you'd better eat it because that came off my pay check."

He glared again. He seemed to be glaring a lot today. But the attendant just grinned even more and went back to serving other customers. When about half an hour had passed and Nico had already finished his latte, the pastry still sat stubbornly on the table. It looked buttery and delicious, even if it wasn't warm anymore. He caved and began slowly picking at it while he finished his book, and eventually another coffee.

The waiter came again, and after clearing away the various paper cups littered across the table, sat down once more.

"There, I finished half," Nico, grumbled. He tried to give it back again, but he was stopped.

"Oh no, I bought it for you. You're finishing it."

He tried to leave it on the table and just pay for his food so he could leave, but the waiter was oddly persuasive, he even ignored Nico's scowl that usually made other people leave him the hell alone. He sat down again, but refused the pastry.

"So do you have a name, or should I just call you death boy?"

"Death boy?"

"Well, you look like death. Probably because you live on coffee and don't eat. Until I get my way, that is. I mean, you did eat half."

Nico decided he didn't like this boy. Even if he was cute, the voice at the back of his mind butted in. He told it to shut up again. In answer, he mumbled out his name. Probably too quietly because the waiter grinned again and said, "Death boy it is then. I'm Will, by the way."

"Nico," he said louder, as he shook the outstretched hand.

"I think I'm good with calling you death boy, Nico," he said, infuriatingly.

Will handed over the bill, and Nico paid for the two lattes, then tipped the waiter, Will, an extra $2.45 to pay him back for the buttered pastry. He may have gotten him to eat, but Nico was not going to give him the full victory. He gave the bill to the attendant at the front counter before the blond could force him to take the money back. He was followed out by the waiter, but he was too late.

"I think I've won this round, sunshine," he grinned at Will.

"Next time, death boy, next time."

And so the assaults continued, with Solace (Nico had learned his surname by looking at his name tag) slipping in Danish pastries, more croissants, oat bars. He even gave him a snowman cookie with his order of peppermint latte, which was so adorable, Nico had a hard time maintaining his scowl. He managed though. He paid for almost every item, until Will refused to give him the bill and instead paid for it himself. In return, Nico refused to eat the pastries until the waiter let him pay.

"You're starting to look healthy, I'll have to stop calling you death boy soon."

"That's the idea," retorted Nico.

"You have whipped cream on your nose."

He blushed and quickly rubbed it off.

Will gave an adorable snort.

"All you did was spread it around. Let me get it."

He reached for the napkin and began doing it for him, but Nico pulled away, ducking his head to hide his red face.

"I still haven't dropped my mission to get you to actually eat substantial food, and you refuse to let me pay for it, so why don't you meet me at another little café and we'll both pay for our own stuff?"

He was about to decline, but Solace was very good at being persuasive, a talent that Nico was beginning to find more and more annoying. Eventually, he held his hands up in surrender.

"Which café were you thinking of?"

One of those annoying smug grins formed on the waiter's lips again. Not that Nico was looking at his lips or anything. Will was just an annoying, persuasive acquaintance, nothing more.

"There's a Signature Café just around the corner from my apartment. I'll see you there at two. And I have one condition; I'm paying for your food."


	2. Lemon Meringue and Coffee

"You changed," Will commented as soon as Nico entered the café, "not that I'm complaining."

"Aren't people supposed to dress up for dates," he retorted back.

"I never said this was a date, but if that's what you want it to be, Death boy."

"Woah, I didn't mean it like that!"

"Suuure you didn't."

He used putting his coat on the rack as an excuse to turn his face away, hiding his flaming cheeks.

"But if taking you on dates is what it takes to actually get substantial food into you, then okay," he continued, unperturbed by Nico's silence.

He pulled up a chair and sat opposite Solace at the café table.

"And why are you so determined? As a Starbucks employee, someone who lives on coffee should be a dream come true for you."

"To the manager, maybe. But the food brings in more money anyway."

"So, what, you've made it your mission to get as much money out of me as possible?" he teased.

"I insist on paying, remember? Besides, I'm a med student. I couldn't just diagnose you and then let you carry on making it worse."

"So what's the diagnosis, Dr Solace?"

He gave one of his adorable snorts of laughter. Nico suddenly found his coffee very interesting.

"Dr Solace?"

He looked up from his cup to glare, but Will was laughing too hard to notice. Nico had finally given up all hope by the time the other boy had finished his laughing fit.

"Dr Solace's-," more laughing, "Dr Solace's diagnosis is anaemia. You probably have fatigue and dizziness most of the time."

"How did you know?"

"I've been drilled often enough to recognise it in my sleep. Coffee is one of the notoriously bad foods for anaemia. Living just on coffee..."

"So you work at Starbucks to pay for college?"

"Don't change the subject, Death Boy. "

"Wouldn't dream of it, Sunshine."

Will drained his hot chocolate. "What's with 'sunshine', anyway?"

"Perché sei come il sole," he mumbled.

"What?"

"Because you're so bright you hurt my eyes."

The other boy grinned.

"And you beam," Nico added.

He groaned," that wasn't even slightly funny."

Of course he insisted on paying, no matter how much Solace argued. He muttered about stubborn anaemic customers on the way out and Nico flashed him a smug grin.

"Did you actually smile?"

"No."

"You did."

"I did not."

"You know, every time I've seen you in that cafe, you've had this 'don't talk to me, I'm in a bad mood' look on your face. I'm surprised smiling doesn't actually break your face or something," he said in as much of a serious voice as Nico suspected he was capable of. The seriousness didn't last long, he went back to his usual order of sarcastic-with-cheery-on-the-side self almost immediately.

"Well, seeing as I make you so happy; I have to go, but here."

The blond handed him a napkin with tidy writing scribbled on the front.

"Since my first plan kind of blew over, I have an ultimatum."

For a second he was going to roll his eyes at how cliché the other boy was being, until he looked down and saw that it was his home address, not Will's number.

"I'm free after twelve in the afternoons, Di Angelo," he yelled from across the street.

Nico wasn't sure what to expect as he walked up to the apartment entrance. As the elevator made its way up, he realized he was nervous. This had just been moving too fast. Two days ago he had met the boy and now he was turning up at his apartment. The doors finally opened and he had to wipe his sweaty hands on his jeans as he reached 202. There was no answer to his knock for so long that he was about to give up and go home when the door opened. A bleary Will appeared in the doorway, yawning.

"Naturalmente tu guarda ancora bene quando si è appena svegliato," Nico muttered. Solace was just too annoying and way to perfect. Not that he'd been paying attention to that or anything.

"What?"

"I said 'you look like you just woke up.' "

"What time is it?"

"Well, you said twelve. It's two now."

He looked surprised, then noticed that they were both standing awkwardly in the doorway. He led Nico inside.

"I usually don't sleep so late. I was up all night studying."

The other boy led him into the kitchen and began the motions to making a cup of coffee, then wandered off down the hall. Nico sorted out the rest for him.

"Milk and sugar?" he called.

"Black with one sugar," Solace said, reappearing to plop down on one the chairs in the kitchen. He was still in his pyjamas, but didn't seem to pay much attention to the fact.

"And I was starting to think nothing got you down, Sunshine," he said, bringing him his coffee.

"What do you mean, 'down'. I'm right as rain," he mumbled, almost falling asleep as he said it.

"How much sleep did you get last night?"

"About six hours."

"Is- is that a bad thing?"

"I'll lecture you about your sleeping habits as soon as I'm awake enough."

"Looking forward to it."

Will slowly drank his coffee. As soon as one cup was finished, Nico made him another one. He started acting like a functioning human after about half of his second one.

"Much obliged, di Angelo."

"And you lecture me about living on coffee."

"Shut up."

But he seemed to be at least half himself, because he was giving his usual good-natured grin.

"You're probably wondering what my ultimatum is. You can help me bake something, but you have to eat it. And you're taking the rest home."

"Let me guess, you're going to bake me a croissant, Solace?"

"That's Dr Solace," he grinned," and no, actually."

He walked around the kitchen, pulling baking sheets and pans from all sorts of odd places. Nico was happy to just sit and watch him, occasionally making a sarcastic comment, but once all the necessary ingredients were on the table, Will made him come over and help.

"Are you at least going to tell me what we're making?"

"Lemon meringue pie. I make a pretty good one, if I say so myself."

"I'll leave you to it then."

"Nice try, Death Boy."

Surprisingly, the pie turned out pretty well, even if there was flour everywhere. And several smashed eggs. They set it in the oven to bake, and Will looked over at him. Well, stared was more the right word. Nico had to duck his head.

"You have flour on your nose", he eventually said.

When he didn't answer, Solace leaned over and got it for him.

"You're red."

"I am not."

"Do we have to do this every time."

"Yes."

"You're impossible."

"That's the idea."

The oven made a noise, which made them both jump. Will got his oven gloves and brought the pie out to the table. He now had a frilly apron, oven gloves, and a very homemade-looking pie.

"Oh Dei sei adorabile," Nico mumbled.

"What was that?"

But he lost his grip when Solace turned around, and started a laughing fit. It didn't help that Solace looked so startled. Every time he stopped, he looked back at Will trying to compose his dignity, and it set him off again.

"Did you just laugh?" He said, when Nico eventually stopped. He just glowered in response.

"No, di Angelo had a laughing fit."

"It was funny," he mumbled.

"You see, that sounded like English."

"What?"

"Most of the time when you say things under your breath, it doesn't even sound like English."

Nico must have looked guilty but he grinned smugly and said," it isn't English, is it?"

"No."

"What is it?"

"I'm not telling you. Not when you have access to the internet. You'd just translate it."

Will glowered.

"You can't glare in that apron."

"Can't I? Hmm."

He took it off and put it on Nico.

"Hey, di Angelo, you can't glare in that apron. So you'd better wear it to all our dates."

"So you admit they're dates?' He grinned widely.


	3. Muffins and Coffee

Nico found himself waiting in anticipation for call from Solace. It was all just really overwhelming. He was usually stony and silent, but Solace seemed to bring out the good traits he didn't even knew he had in him. Will seemed to act like they were old friends, and not like they hadn't even known each other a week ago. Nico found himself just going with it. But his phone remained stubbornly silent; One day, two days, three days. He hadn't seen the waiter at the café either. Instead, he'd been served by a sullen man that he couldn't help comparing to his usual, sunshiney waiter. Nico pushed down his concerned thoughts about the absence of the other boy anywhere. Five days, six days. He allowed himself to worry.

Nico took a deep breath and decided that it needed to be done. He rummaged in the pantry, brought out the sealed package, and began measuring and adding.

"di Angelo?"

"You look awful."

Will's look of complete surprise gave way to a grin.

"I look awful? Have you seen yourself lately? You should keep your distance though, I'm sick."

He really did look it. Nico was beginning to think he wasn't human, considering how happy and bright he was all the time, no matter what condition he was in.

Will began making coffee again, but Nico took over. He looked like he wanted to argue, but he also looked exhausted. Nico brought the plate of muffins he had baked last night, along with two cups of coffee to the heap of blankets on the couch. The few strands of blond peeking out from the top were the only signs of existence from the person who'd been walking around minutes ago. Nico felt guilty for coming over when Solace was so clearly exhausted. He was about to leave when he heard,

"Did I fall asleep?"

He was now up again, stretching, then reaching for his coffee and a muffin.

"These are really good, where'd you get them?"

"I made them"

"Death Boy bakes?"

He shrugged," it was from a ready-mix package."

"Death Boy bakes?" he repeated, unperturbed.

"Well-"

"You, bake.

Nico sighed," yes, Solace. I bake."

"This just keeps getting better and better," he said, with that grin that was not adorable. At all. He hated it. It did not look especially adorable when combined with that splash of freckles on his nose. That was all scrunched up. Nico quickly looked down at his muffin.

"What made you come anyway?"

"You weren't at the café."

"And you were worried."

Nico didn't look up from his plate, but as usual Will wasn't bothered by his silence, and continued.

"Well, whatever made you come, it was nice to see a friendly face."

"My face..friendly?"

"You're so clueless."

"oh dei sei adorabile," he mumbled.

"Okay that definitely wasn't English."

"I told you, Italian is too easy to translate."

Nico clamped a hand over his mouth.

" You're not-

Italian?"

And that was the moment that Nico decided to very bravely retreat, taking a muffin with him for the road. They were very good.

Nico was doing research when his phone buzzed on his desk.

Would you come back another time if I told you the translating was mostly unsuccessful- will

He sighed and typed in the number. Working was out for tonight.

"Italian?" came Solace's voice straight away.

"Yes, Will."

"From Italy?"

"Mhmm."

"As in 'olive skin and black hair' Italian."

"I will hang up on you."

"Sorry it's just, you're so pale."

"I know."

"Italian; are you sure?"

"If this is going to end up being like the baking thing, I swear."

"You're Italian- and you bake."

"Will, you're really not doing a good job of the whole 'convincing me to come back' thing."

"Right, right. I got some things, like adorabile-"

Nico hung up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know I forgot to put up translations for the last chapter, but if it helps now, oh dei sei adorabile is supposed to mean oh gods you're adorable.


	4. Coffee

And so, he took the best course of action, and hid. He avoided the cafe and all of its blond waitstaff at all costs. And all of said blond waitstaff's texts. And calls. He hated doing it, but it was just so humiliating and there was no way in hades he was going back to talking to him anytime soon. His ego just couldn't take it. Solacehad an annoying tendency to ignore all of Nico's carefully crafted boundaries, but this was the last straw. Even if he was adorabile. A word that Solace now understood. Stupid adorable waiters who just had to worry that Italian regular customers weren't eating and create a huge plan to get said customers to eat and then try to understand what said customer was muttering about, even if it was done in a language the waitstaff didn't understand on purpose...

And there was another hour out of Nico's work schedule wasted. You have to focus, he told himself before he went on another mental rant about Solace, even if he was annoying and- He sighed and gave up. He wasn't going to get anymore work done today, and trying to force it wasn't helping. So instead, he padded over to the kitchen, found a sealed ready-mix package, and began baking, trying not to think about the last time he'd made muffins

Of course after weeks of skillful avoiding that had come with lots of practice, Nico just had to slip up. He passed Solace's cafe on the way to get groceries, and only realised his mistake when he saw the sign. Nico was not a religious person in the slightest, but he prayed that Will was too busy waiting tables to spot him. Apparently prayers from an Agnostic went unanswered because there was a flash of blond followed by a yell of "DI ANGELO." For the second time that week, his bravery reached his limits. He ran. But Nico being a small anemic boy and Solace being a healthy waiter with plenty of experience in running around, it went exactly as he thought it would.

"DI ANGELO DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I WAS?"

"But-"

"I DON'T CARE IF I UNDERSTOOD ONE LITTLE WORD OF ITALIAN, YOU STILL COULD HAVE ANSWERED MY CALLS."

"Look Will-"

"I WAS WORRIED SICK, NICO."

He must have looked as bewildered as he felt, because Will stopped announcing everything loud enough for the whole street to hear.

"Are you telling me that you think calling me adorable from time to time was going to do anything aside from fuel my ego? You're so clueless, di Angelo."

It took him a while, but Nico eventually managed to compose himself enough to say with a weak attempt at smugness, "you were worried about me?"

"Did I ever tell you that you're clueless."

"Everyday."

"Well clearly I don't do it enough."

Nico was pulled into such a tight hug that he was surprised to find his organs intact when Will eventually pulled away

He took in Solace's soft expression, hands on hips, and cafe apron that was mostly clean, but still patterned with the odd food stain.

"Sei una tale chioccia, Solace," he said under his breath.

"Careful, di Angelo, I have Google Translate."

He paled.

"Or you, know, you could just save me the trouble and translate that for me right now."

"Not a chance, Sunshine. Not a chance."

Nico turned up at Will's door with a basket of chocolate chip muffins. (Ready-mix as usual, because he still hadn't gotten the hang of actual baking. His kitchen was still recovering from his last attempt at making cookies from scratch.)

"Peace offering, Solace."

"You can't just bribe me with muffins."

"Why not, they're good."

"Fine, I'll take your black-mail baked goods. But you have to promise not to run away like a startled deer again. Oh my gods, you even look like a startled deer when you're bewildered."

"My glare can clear a room."

"But tu are adorabile."

Nico facepalmed.

"It's sei adorabile, Sunshine."

The other boy very maturely pouted, which would have made him roll his eyes if anyone else had done it, but he just looked so cute with his nose all scrunched up. Nico rolled his eyes anyway.

They had their usual routine, with Will making the coffee and Nico rummaging in the fridge to find things to go with his muffins. When that was arranged they met at the couch. Will took his third muffin and broke it in half, extending the other piece to Nico.

"You've barely eaten."

He sighed, but obliged. Arguing with Solace was much harder than just agreeing with him. They talked and Will had his usual laughing fit over something ridiculous that Nico had said. But this time he had the urge to rest his head on Solace's shoulder or cuddle up to him, or just do something. Nico hoped it would go away soon. He usually avoided human contact like the plague and they were barely friends, he was not messing that up anytime soon.

"Nico?" the other boy repeated, breaking him out of his reverie. Being the chioccia that he was, he of course took Nico's silence as a sign that he needed more food. He gave him a whole muffin this time.

"I asked, Death Boy, what you do. I don't think you go to college."

"No, I work."

"Doing what?" he asked, with his mouth half full of baked good.

"The extremely intriguing work of writing papers for a company," Nico deadpanned.

"About what?"

"Greek mythology. For a publishing company."

Will carried on talking, but Nico couldn't focus on what he was saying. The urge to cuddle up to him was back. He didn't understand why it was there in the first place. Like he kept telling himself, he'd only known the other boy for about two weeks. And he'd barely seen him properly in that short span of time. Nico sighed and tried to banish it by taking another muffin and trying to listen to what Will was saying. Nico was instantly snapped out of his thoughts when he felt something fall back against his shoulder. Will had leaned his head against the other boy's shoulder.

"There, that caught your attention. I asked you what your surname meant. It's Italian, right?"

" 'Of Angels'."

He grinned, "What, Angels of Death?"

Then, " Shit, it's almost three. Can I be really rude and kick you out?"

Nico tried to finish his work. He had made peace with Solace and was no longer bothered about the other boy understand his "adorabile" comment. As much. By all rights, he should have been able to concentrate. But he was still caught on the feeling of Will's head on his shoulder. Stupid Solace, he always found a way of breaking down Nico's boundaries.

Translations:

chioccia- 'motherhen'

adorabile- adorable


	5. Picnics and Coffee

It had been several days since his last encounter with Solace. Beyond their few pleasantries exchanged at the cafe, that is. Nico was beginning to think he'd have a peaceful week to finish his work, uninterrupted by his usual distraction. Knowing said distraction as he did, Nico should have expected to be proven wrong.

It was a 10 am on a Thursday when he resumed his routine of the week, holing himself in his room, living on coffee and the occasional muffin, (the blond waiter's constant hounding about him not eating had apparently gotten to him) and working on his next piece to submit to the publishers. He tapped his fingers irritably on the desk top, why did writing have to be so hard? And to top it off, he was tired, so tired. To exhausted to stop himself when his head dropped, and he closed his eyes. Just for a bit.

He was startled awake by a sudden buzzing sound. Nico groaned, but the noise stubbornly refused to go away. He felt around blindly for the source, and brought his phone to his face, squinting at the screen.Will Solace,the all too bright phone blazed at him. He pressed the green button and mumbled a barely intelligible greeting,wincing at how loud and bright the other boy sounded.

"Did I wake you up, Death Boy?

I need your address, I haven't seen much of you, but from what I've seen, you look awful. You definitely need to go out for a day."

He got out the street name in a voice thick with sleep, but managed to catch himself before he he did anything stupid like give Solace his house number. That was definitely something a concerned med student, especially ones with chioccia tendencies, should never be given the power of knowing.

"I'll find the number myself. Lemme guess, you live in an old goth house at the end of the street that everyone avoids because it gives off a death vibe."

He gave Nico sometime to get out a goodbye, but when none was given, mostly because he was about to fall asleep again at any second, he hung up with a "see you, Death Boy".

Nico made a mental note never to trust himself with a phone when he was tired.

For the second time that day, he was startled awake by Solace. Knowing the other boy, he shouldn't have been surprised to find a grinning blond on his doorstep in what he presumed was fifteen minutes. He sighed. It was going to be one of those days, wasn't it.

"You look like you just woke up," he said cheerily when Nico met him in the door way. It had taken awhile, but well, this disturbance isn't going to go away anytime soon, he'd told himself, and begrudgingly went downstairs to meet him.

"I mean, you sounded tired on the phone, but, " he carried on.

Nico remained silent, focusing all his energy on waking up properly. Which just made him more tired. He began the processes of making coffee, wandering into the kitchen with Solace still chatting animatedly behind him.

"Your kitchen is a mess." The comment would usually be considered rude, but it didn't bother Nico. He got on better with rude people, they got to the point and didn't try wrap it up with a few polite comments. Besides,it wasn't like he was being especially charming himself at this particular moment.

"I've been busy with work," he managed to get out after he'd drained his first cup.

"When was the last time you saw actual sunshine?"

"Well, I've seen you a couple of times at the cafe."

The blond groaned." That wasn't even slightly funny. And stop distracting me, you look even worse than usual."

Nico shot him a glare, which Solace naturally didn't notice.

"Come on, you need sun light and food. Dr Solace's orders."

"A picnic? You can't be serious."

"You're going di Angelo, whether you like it or not."

He grabbed Nico's wrist firmly, he was surprisingly strong. "And you are not running away like a startled dear this time."

"I don't know which one I enjoy more, Death Boy or Startled Deer."

"See, you're back to your usual dead-panning-self already."

He managed to drag Nico over to a tree, set up the blanket and basket,and sit down, all while keeping a firm grasp on Nico's wrist. He had to admit, he was kind of impressed.

"Stupido adorabile Solace e il suo stupido chioccia atteggiamento," he said under his breath.

"Are you going to tell me what that means?"

"Well in that context, choiccia means mother hen."

"I am not- well, I am but.."

"You really seem to use that a lot," Solace continued with a grin.

Nico took a sandwich, he was pretty hungry. And it was a distraction from the awkward silence that dragged on between the two. The other boy eventually broke it with a, "You're from Italy, right?"

"Venice."

" Why'd you leave?"

He shrugged, "I didn't get all the details, but conditions weren't the best for my mother. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with us not being a Catholic family, or even religious at all. And my Maria having to raise two kids by herself on top of that.." he trailed off.

"Maria?"

"My mother."

"Oh."

Then, " Two kids?"

"My sister, Bianca."

"I never knew you had a sister."

"I don't."

The other boy looked down and Nico went back to his sandwich, he hadn't meant to make Solace feel bad about his messed up family life.

"You know, my mom died when I was little."

Nico looked up.

"She got leukemia. They picked it up too late, there was nothing they could do. I don't really remember her, but it would've been nice to, you know?"

"Is that why you became a doctor?" he asked in a shaky voice, he wasn't sure how well Solace would take Nico asking such a personal question.

"Yeah, it would be nice to help other people. So the same thing won't happen to them." Will gave him a sad smile and it felt like someone had wrenched a knife intro his gut.

He looked down again. The usually happy boy looked so sad. He wished there was something he could do. He reached out and nervously put a hand on the blonde's shoulder. Will looked up and gave him a smile, but it lacked its usual annoying brightness.

"But hey, I dragged you out here to give you some vitamin D, not depress you."

Will leaned in closer to Nico he seemed to be actually inviting him to do it. And he actually found that he wasn't averse to the butterflies in his stomach beat frantically against his stomach with so much force it was like they were trying to escape. A blush spread over his cheeks, and in the heat of the moment, he decided he could do something. The two of them moved forward, almost touching, just a little closer, and-

A sneeze. Solaced jumped back about five meters at the sudden noise, then packed up laughing.

"You sneeze like a kitten."

"I do not."

"I know, I know 'my glare can clear a room'," he said in a terrible impression of Nico.

"That is not how I sound!"

"I thought it was a pretty spot on impression. I did the death stare and everything.

See, you're doing it right now. Are you sulking now? Terrifying Death Boy who sneezes like a kitten is sulking. And... I'm not helping, am I."

He rested his head on Nico's shoulder and poked his cheek.

"And now you're blushing."

"Sei so adorabile, di Angelo."

"It's sei così adorabile, Sunshine."

Nico was back at home when full realisation hit him. He had been about to kiss Will Solace. Will was about to kiss him. Maybe it was the sunshine or the other boy's freckles, or maybe the amount of time he'd spent working had frayed his nerves a little too much, making him do stupid things amidst all the stress. And then he had sneezed.He decided that he hated his immune system.


	6. Bear Claws and Coffee

-Chapter 6 from Will's perspective-

Will had been blown off. di Angelo had been pretty tolerant and hadn't failed to show up for every invitation he'd gotten so far. He even invited himself sometimes. So he was pretty shocked when the sleepy voice on the phone told him that he needed to get his next chapter in by the end of the week, so he couldn't make it this time.

"Sorry," he added awkwardly.

"No problem, Sunshine." He ignored Nico's complaining about how that was his nickname, and carried on," I'll see you in five though."

"Will-"

"Did you just actually call me something apart from 'that annoying waiter' or 'Solace'?"

"Yes, but-"

"You should get back to your work. Be there in a bit."

"Sorry, Solace, but I really can't do this today."

"Oh, I know."

He passed Nico the plate of cookies, along with a comment of "Do I even need to give you the lecture."

"I know I know, 'di Angelo, living on coffee is not healthy, you need to eat, etc, etc'."

He grinned, "Good."

He glanced at Nico and decided he looked healthy enough. di Angelo kept having to look away, like that was enough to hide his red face. Nico kept trying to tell him that he was dark and terrifying and his glare could clear a room, but he was about as terrifying as a kitten.

"Well, I'm going to take off. See you, Death Boy."

He tried to convince himself that Nico was not avoiding him. And that girl across from him had nothing to do with it. He started off steering clear of that table just because Lee had taken it over for right now. Then because he was just so annoyed. He was probably just being stupid. She was just a friend. Or di Angelo was straight, he had a right to be. It wasn't like he owned the boy, and he totally wasn't jealous. Well, maybe a little.

"Seriously, Solace?" he jerked his head up at the voice that was suddenly behind him, it was just Lee, " I can't take your table for the entire week. You need to take it up again sometime."

"I took me forever to get you to leave that table alone and let someone else wait on your boyfriend, and now I have to get you to pick it up again?" Lou Ellen appeared at the mention of Nico.

"Can you two stop randomly appearing? Seriously, you need a cowbell or something."

"No," she said helpfully. "And I know you have an obsession with that boy, but were you really just going to stand here and creepily watch him?"

"I wasn't watching him creepily. I was just observing him from a distance."

Lee put a condescending hand on Will's shoulder." Um, Solace, that's the definition of watching him creepily."

"Will, stop stalking di Angelo and go talk to the boy. I bet you ten bucks this is just a misunderstanding. There's no way he's straight."

Lee nodded," I mean, look at him."

"Don't you two have somewhere else to be not helpful?"

"No. It's our break."

He tapped his pen against his notebook nervously as he went towards their table. Damn those two for getting him to do this.

"Oh, um, hi Will," di Angelo said awkwardly. Usually, he found it cute when Nico was nervous. But today he decided that Death Boy was completely annoying, and not at all adorable. It didn't matter that he was a cute shade of pink or that he just reminded him so much of a kitten or how he just wanted to reach out and touch the black strands of hair that looked so soft. Nope, Nico was 100% annoying today.

He smiled in response. "What can I get you?"

He scratched down their order of bear claws and drinks for the two of them on his notebook, trying his best not to glare daggers at the girl Nico introduced as Hazel. It didn't help at all that she was really sweet and smiled a lot, and was on the whole pretty hard to hate.

By the time Will had brought the bill, di Angelo seemed to notice the other boy's annoyance and put two and two together. Took him long enough.

"Uh, Hazel? I needa talk to Will for a second. I'll be right back."

"Sure," she said warmly.

"Nico, you didn't tell me you have a girlfriend,"he tried to keep his voice as friendly as possible, forcing a grin that probably looked more like a terrifying grimace.

He stepped back and waved his hands frantically. "Oh, nononono, Hazel isn't my girlfriend. I realized this must look pretty bad, that's why I wanted to talk to you. I am actually pretty behind with my chapter and I really do need to catch up, but Hazel came down from Canada and I haven't seen her in ages," he trailed off and Will felt really, really stupid. He moved his annoyed feelings from Nico to himself.

"Uh-" the other boy said again. There was an awkward silence.

Nico rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, turning his usual pink colour.

"Do you- uh, have a girlfriend."

"Well, I'm not exactly 'straight as a board'. Or, you know, straight at all."

"Oh, uh..."

He grinned, "don't worry your pretty little head about it, di Angelo."

"So, what, you think it's pretty?"

"I didn't say that."

"Yes you did," he said with a small grin.

Another awkward silence.

"You know, I'm not really that straight either," the other boy said, before very bravely making a run for it.

"Nico?"

"Yeah?"

"That's the freezer."

He came out again,"I knew that."

As soon as he's gone, Lou Ellen emerged from the shadows

"Told you."

"Louise, what have I told you about personal space?"

"To respect it. I choose to ignore it though."

"I kinda got that."

"Well, you did it, you talked to the boy. Besides, you can't talk about personal space when you spent the first five minutes of your shift watching your boyfriend from the kitchen."

"Fair enough."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In other news, I've read about 10 sollaneglo fics in this past week. This is healthy


	7. Cookies and Coffee

Nico had told Will Solace that he no longer had a sister, but that wasn't exactly true. Although they weren't directly related, they were close enough to be siblings. Technically they were even siblings. But his train of thought was dangerously nearing something. And Nico really didn't like to think about that, so he dropped it quickly. They had been quite close at one point, but it wasn't like that anymore. They'd first crossed paths when Maria di Angelo's state-hopping had landed Nico and Bianca in New Orleans, and had become friends pretty quickly. And when they moved onto yet another state, they'd promised to keep in touch. A promise they'd kept up until Hazel left for Canada to see her boyfriend Frank.

A knock at his door snapped him out of it. Hazel was not to blame. He needed to stop thinking about it.

Hazel obliged to his call of "come in", holding two mugs of coffee. He saved his work so far, and stood, stretching out his stiff limbs, and finally took his cup from her outstretched hand.

"Hazel, you shouldn't have. I'll come down, I should probably take a break anyway."

He rummaged in his cupboard and actually managed to find a packet of cookies, which he brought through to his already seated guest.

" Sorry about that. I have sent a request to my editor for an extended due date, but he hasn't got back to me yet."

" You don't need to go to all that trouble. I know how hard you worked to get this job. Besides, I'll be in New York long enough for you to get sick of me," she smiled.

"You just got here, and you're already talking about me getting sick of you. Like that'd ever happen, anyway. So come on, how was Canada? And you said something about Frank getting a promotion?"

And that was all it took to set her off, talking at 100/mph. Nico tried to listen, even if she was talking so fast her words blended together and he only got the last part.

"Canadaissogreatandeveryone'ssoniceandthatmountainsunset is so beautiful, almost a whole year of seeing it and I'm still not tired of it. Frank's gone up in the military, he's a corporal now, which isn't very high up, but it's something and he hasn't been in the military for all that long."

He smiled and nodded along at the right moments. It really had been far too long, he'd missed Hazel.

"And-" she stopped herself," and I've been talking about myself for far too long. What about you? You finally managed to get this house. I know you've had your eye on it for ages. And something tells me you're not doing too badly in the romance department."

Nico stared open mouthed at her, probably looking really intelligent.

"W-what?" he said, topping it off by sounding real intelligent too.

"Oh come on, I've seen how you look at that blond waiter. And as far as I can tell, the feeling is mutual."

"Oh n-no no no no, we're not-" he went a shade of red that would've made fire engines jealous.

She didn't look very convinced, but mercifully, she left the subject alone. Instead, she went back to gushing about how nice Canadians were.

Nico had a few pleasant moments of denial before realisation sunk in. He hit his head against his desk and groaned, his laptop screen still displaying his editor's reply. How in the sweet name of hades was he supposed to finish his chapter in time with Hazel there. A layer of guilt made a nice little topping to his parfait of denial, panic and frustration. He was glad Hazel was back. And besides, his crushing deadline or the fact that there was no way he'd ever be able to meet it was in no way her fault. He allowed himself to stew for a while, thunking his head against his desk and muttering, "Merda, merda, merda," before collecting himself. He had a deadline, after all.

Of course, that just had to be the night that he got yet another distraction. Or rather, morning. It was 3am, and he was halfway through, keeping himself sustained with coffee, when he heard a knock. He didn't register it at first, he half of him was asleep and the other half was lazer-focused on his work. It came again, louder and louder. He stood up, growling out an impressive collection of Italian curse words. Who turned up at someone's door at three in the freaking morning. Apparently, golden-haired boys in batman pajamas did.

"Morning, Death Boy."

It took all of Nico's self control not to shut the door in his face.


	8. Gallons of Coffee

A/N: another chapter from Will's POV, because I just love writing from his perspective

Disclaimer: okay, do I even need to say this anymore

Said golden-haired boy watched in amazement and a little fear as Nico answered the door, looking like he ate children souls for fun. Then to regular brown-eyed kitten-faced surprise as he took it all in. Will had to admit, it felt pretty good to know he had that effect on people. Even if it only worked on short Italian boys. Nico looked too far gone to even ask the obvious question, he just stood there with his mouth open. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly,

"Right, well, I should probably explain why I'm on your doorstep at 3 am."

"That would be nice."

"Yeah, so um... there's been a black mold outbreak in my the apartment block and really long story short, we got evacuated. But I've been really busy lately since finals are coming up, and I may or may not have managed to miss the warning."

Nico blinked at him, "How did you miss an evacuation warning?"

"Well, uh, I haven't really been at home much lately, what with extra shifts at the cafe and college. Any free time I've had has been spent studying in the library. This week has been kind of a blur, trying to do everything at I guess the evacuation date kinda sorta...got lost somewhere along with all the other due dates in my brain?" his voice rose an octave higher as he got to the last word, making it sound like a question.

The dark haired boy nodded, like what he'd just said explained a lot of things. And then it hit him. He'd been running around all week, trying to get everything together that he'd completely forgotten about Nico. And now here he was, after a whole week's absence, out of the blue,on this boy's doorstep, at some ungodly hour. And in batman pajamas. Will Solace felt great about himself right about now.

"Ah, shit," he muttered to himself.

"What?"

"Well, I mean, I know I haven't been around the whole week."

He shrugged,"Hazel's been down, so I've been kind of busy too."

Seriously Solace, he's not straight, he said it himself. Can't you just stop being jealous of that poor girl for one second?

And then again, something in his tone made it obvious that he was trying a bit too hard to play it off. Will's absence had definitely been noticed. And, he had to admit, even though the busy part was true, some of his missing in action thing did have his surge of ridiculous jealousy to thank. Yup, Will just kept feeling better and better about himself as the night went on.

Nico opened the door wider and awkwardly waved him in.

"You're a life saver, di Angelo. My dad stays all the way in Cali, and I really couldn't make the drive tonight. And there's no way I could afford a hotel right now."

"Woah, you moved this far away from home for college? I mean, aren't there tons of really good colleges there anyway?"

He shrugged, "The colleges in California just weren't my cup of tea. I found the perfect one here in NYC, really close to my apartment and work, too. Besides, I always wanted to see the big city. I guess I kind of fell in love with the idea of living and studying in The Big Apple."

"Okay, for starters, only foreigners call it 'The Big Apple'."

"Says the Italian."

"Touche."

Nico nodded vaguely and went through to the kitchen, and Will realised he'd never actually seen the inside of his house before. It was nice, really nice. He wondered how he could afford all this. Even with a job in writing, he couldn't be paid this much, unless he was pretty high up. He'd been pretty hospitable after he got over the initial shock at the door, but Will sensed he was still on the brink of another one of his murderous looks. And he really din't want to risk bringing that look back by asking that type of thing just yet. Usually he considered Nico about as terrifying as a chihuahua, even if di Angelo did insist that his glares could clear a room. But that death glare he was greeted with... he shuddered. He really didn't want to earn another one of those. Nico came back with enough coffee to sustain an army in one hand, and a much smaller amount in the other. He handed Will the smaller of the two, then downed his couple gallons almost immediately. Will took it gratefully, he'd probably gotten about ten hour's sleep collectively this entire week.

"Why were you up at this time in the morning, anyway?"

"Trynna finish up this book chapter in time for the cut-off date."

"I guess me turning up didn't exactly help, huh?"

Nico muttered something in Italian, then added in English,

"Like I said,Hazel's been down, so it's been sort of impossible anyways."

He nodded, and there was a stretched silence, which Will awkwardly broke with a;

"Well, I should probably try to get as much sleep as possible. Can't afford to be sleep-deprived tomorrow."

"Uhhh, I probably have a spare bed upstairs."

"No worries, I'll take the couch."

di Angelo blinked at him like he'd just won the award for saying the world's most outrageous phrase.

"I couldn't do that to you. Especially since there is an empty bed around somewhere. "

He was halfway upstairs when he stopped and muttered something like "Cazzo! Perchè,mondo crudele,mi stai facendo questo adedesso?! La mia gayness ora no può sopportare ciò."

"Translation, please?"

"I just realized that Hazel is using the spare bed."

"So what, Death Boy?"

All the countless times Nico had blushed before? That was nothing, there was no phrase in the English language, probably not in Italian either, that could describe the shade of red he had turned now. Will could have insisted that he slept on the couch. But this was way too good of an opportunity to pass up, he'd even take that death glare again. So instead, he played dumb.

"So, u-um," more Italian mumbling, "Non posso fare questo. So, um, your only other options are the couch-"

"Uh-huh, and the other one?"

"Come on, Solace, you know what it is."

"Nope, afraid not. Enlighten me."

Will didn't need to be able to speak Italian to know that the next few words uttered were definitely not exactly PG13, cuss wise.

"Is it a double?"

"Yes.."

"Perfect."

He passed several doors down the upstairs hall until he came across a solitary flash of black and silver. He doubled back, that had to be it. Satisfied, he flopped down on the double bed. Nico shot him a death glare and he couldn't help but feel a little too evil, not evil enough to stop,but still.

"Hey Nico?"

"What," it was more of a brusque statement than a question.

"How do you say goodnight in Italian?"

"Buonanotte."

"Buonanotte," he repeated.

"Vafancullo."

"What was that?"

"You do realise the point of me speaking Italian, right?"

"Isn't it just an automatic reaction?"

"Rarely. I do it because you don't understand what I'm saying. So don't worry you're pretty little head about it, Sunshine."

"Okay, I don't know if that's you're 'way too tired to deal with this' voice, or you 'I'm going to murder you in your sleep' voice. I'm leaning more towards the second one. Should I be worried you're going to kill me because I'm sleeping here?"

"Purtroppo no. Non lo potrei fare. Solace, sei troppo adorabile."

"What?"

"I said don't sleep somewhere else and you won't have to worry about that. "

"Not a chance, di Angelo. Not a chance."

Translations:

Perchè,mondo crudele,mi stai facendo questo adedesso?! La mia gayness ora no può sopportare ciò- why, cruel world, don't do this to me now?! My gay self/gayness cannot handle this right now.

Non posso fare questo- I can't do this.

Purtroppo no. Non lo potrei fare. Solace, sei troppo adorabile- Unfortunately, no. I couldn't do that. You're too adorable for your own good

As for Vafancullo and cazzo, I'm, uh, definitely not translating that.

Once again, Italian all thanks to giulky.

A/N: Sorry about the last cliffhanger. But I'm rectifying that by.. giving you another cliffhanger. Will Nico give in, or sleep on the couch? Guess you're not going to find out until the next chapter :). Is this how Rick R feels.

I uh, I think I got a little too excited with the Italian swears. Moral of the story, never give me access to a bunch of cuss words in another language.


	9. Cream and Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Solace is not straight

Disclaimer: do I even need to say this anymore

Hey, for those of you who haven't heard, well,read, the good news yet; term one and control tests are officially over! This means I can afford to be an active ff author once more. Started with Sollangelo prompts yesterday, and moving onto this fic today. Enjoy!

Will Solace's POV because apparently I'm attached to his perspective

Will had foreseen only two outcomes. One, di Angelo gave up and joined him. Or Two,he refused and chose the couch instead. But apparently there had been a third option, and the Italian boy had taken it. He was greeted first thing in the morning with the very graceful figure of di Angelo, flopped face first on his laptop keyboard, snoring. He'd obviously been working well into the night on his chapter before he dozed off, because the word document on his screen blared;

Hades and Persephone444r55555555555555555555532455555rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

He decided this was because of his experiment anyway,(Which hadn't worked on Nico "screw your rules, Solace, I'm sleeping on my laptop" di Angelo) so he backspaced all the random lettering, courtesy of Nico's face typing, saved the document, and pulled the blanket from the bed, draping it around the sleeping boy's shoulders. He then proceeded down the hall to the kitchen, measuring out teaspoons of coffee, sugar, boiling water and cream for two people. He supposed making helping himself to half the dose of coffee in someone else's house might have been considered rude. But hey, when you've turned up at someone's doorstep at 3 am and crashed in their bed for the night, there are very little boundaries left to break. Besides, they'd already established the whole "my apartment block is your apartment block, your coffee is my coffee, any and all pastries from the cafe I work in are available for your free consumption, even though you insist on paying for them every time" thing. He was interrupted by a sound, someone clearing their throat quietly. So quietly, he almost didn't hear around, registered a face, then extended the mug of coffee that had been meant for Nico to Hazel instead. He probably wasn't waking up anytime soon from the looks of things, anyway. She accepted it with a grateful smile, which he returned.

"You're the waiter from the Solace, right? Nico talks about you a lot

"I'm Hazel Levesque. But I guess my brother already told you that."

Nico talks about you a lot. He had to admit, that felt pretty good. Wait, what?

"Brother?"

"Oh, well, technically he's only my stepbrother, but I mean, I'm the closest thing to a sister he has since.."

Since Bianca died.

"Wait, so, you're Nico's sister?"

She smiled," Yeah, we get that a lot."

"But-"

But I just realised how creepy it is that I thought you two were dating. I mean, you're siblings and I thought you two were a couple! I'm really creeped out in general right about now.

He decided not to say that out loud.

"So, um, how come I've never seen you around or anything," he said in an attempt to break the awkward silence.

"Oh, I've been in Canada on a visit for months. I went up to meet Frank's family, it's a pretty big step in the relationship."

She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, blushing, and Will really wondered why he'd ever disliked this girl. She kept shooting him curious glances, and occasionally faniing herself, but she didn't pry. He really appreciated that. In fact, he wondered how he had even managed to harbour any ill feelings towards her in the first place. She was just so sweet and lovable.

"So, uh, you're probably wondering why I've been here in your brother's room this entire time."

She paused her fanning, only to start up again at ten times the speed, entire face turning red like a stoplight.

"N-no, you two are old enough to do whatever you want, it- it's really none of my business."

"Huh?What do you- oh, nonono, Hazel it's nothing like that, I swear. I kind of got evacuated and.. Nope. Nope, nothing like that."

And that was how di Angelo found them in the kitchen, both red in the face and fanning themselves.

"Just don't ask, Nico. It's easier," he muttered to himself.

He held out a mug of coffee to Will.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm good, I had."

"More for me."

He walked out again, sipping from both cups on his way back to his room.

Hazel smiled apologetically, "My brother's people skills are usually a little better than this."

"No worries, I've seen way worse."

She raised an eyebrow.

"You should have been there for our first encounter. I tried to give him food."

"Not a good idea," she nodded her sympathies.

"He spends half the time muttering to himself in Italian."

"Did you try learning it for translation purposes?"

"At first. And then I figured I probably don't want to know anyway."

"Smart man."

"So, um, what's the deal with you two, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, we're just friends."

She pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows, like she knew something, but didn't say anything further.

Will checked his watch and almost swore.

"I've gotta run, I'm already late for work. Nice talking to you, Hazel."

He ran upstairs to Nico's room to go collect his stuff, probably throw in a "hey, thanks for involuntarily letting me steal your bed after I got evacuated from my apartment."

That had been the plan until he opened the door. Then, all he could do was register was Nico di Angelo's glorious back muscles, and try not to drool. Um, what was he going to do again?

Shhh, not important, the part of his brain that was still working contributed helpfully.

But-

Back muscles.

Nico, who had obviously been in the process of changing shirts, put another one on, hiding the excellent view. His disappointment snapped him out of it, and he stopped staring like a drooling idiot.

"Uh, Will," Nico had gone a delicate shade of scarlet.

It took a lot of effort to get his brain to work again. The occasional whisper of"back muscles" from somewhere in the back of his head was not helping.

"I, uh, work, stuff, yes," he said intelligently.

He decided to retreat before anything else happened.

"Hey Will, in case you do ever get over the 'we're just friends' phase, I just want to say now, I think you'd be really good for my brother."

Yeah, that was the type of thing he'd been trying to avoid.

"Thanks, Hazel, I'll think about it," he called on his way out.

"Hey, I heard you were over at Nico's."

"How did you- you know what, I'm not even going to ask, Lou."

Lee nodded from the back of the kitchen," smart man."

"So, pay up, blondie."

"Wait, what?"

"I bet you ten dollars he wasn't straight, like, yesterday."

"Back muscles. I mean, uh, hey, nothing like that! First Hazel, now you."

"Don't try to distract me, you owe me."

"Hey, all we've established today is that I am definitely not straight. "

"Oh, please, Solace, everyone knows you've been gay for that boy since day one. Even Lee, and we all know what an idiot he is."

"Hey! I heard that!"

"Good, it would've been wasted if you hadn't."

Lee sighed," Will, if you say 'back muscles' one more time...You are this close to drooling on the food. Just go date the boy already. It's been like, two months."

" Yeah, prove he's gay, date him, and give me the ten dollars you owe me."

"Seriously, guys, don't you have anything better to do than comment on my love life?"

"No."


	10. Pancakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico sucks at cooking at I relate

Nico made pancakes. Actual, non ready-mix pancakes. They ended up hopelessly scrambled when he lifted them out of the pan, but that wasn't the point. He scraped a pile onto his sister's plate, planting a kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks for the um," Hazel settled for the word "breakfast."

He grinned. It hurt his face muscles.

"Baking is definitely not my strong suit."

"No, they're good.."

"Pancakes."

She looked down at her plate like she was trying to see the resemblance between the scrambled batter and actual pancakes, then nodded, but she still looked pretty unconvinced. Nico couldn't help it, he cracked up. Hazel grinned back.

"Your,uh, friend left. Said something about work."

"Oh, yeah, he said. Well, his exact words were 'I,um, work, yes' but I got the general idea."

His sister smiled sweetly again. A stretched silence. Nico drummed his fingers on the surface of the table nervously. Hazel began working on her pancakes, trying to spike the pieces with her fork, before giving up and pouring syrup over everything.

"Hazel? How'd you know?" he tried.

She looked up at him quizzically, and he lost his courage completely.

"It's nothing, nevermind."

Back into a forced quiet. Nico took a long draught of his coffee.

"So, Will Solace."

He almost spat his drink back out again.

"What about him?"

"I'm just saying, if you too ever got together, I would definitely not complain."

"Oh, no no, we're not..."

"That's what he said."

A break in the conversation. He fidgeted with his skull ring, a birthday present from Bianca.

"How'd you know, back at the cafe?" he blurted ,"You assumed that I had a thing for Will, so how'd you know? That I'm... attracted to males."

"I guess I had my suspicions. And the way you always talked about Percy back when you were twelve."

Nico went a shade of pink, suddenly very interested in his pancake.

"Hey, I thought it was pretty sweet."

He wondered why she was taking this so well. She's grown up in an especially strict Christian part of New Orleans, she'd had the same ideals he had drilled into her head and he wasn't taking it well. Nico's father back in Italy had been a pretty strong Catholic, Maria di Angelo, not so much. She'd never set foot in a church before she'd married his father. Nico had hardly set foot in a church, aside from the Easter and Christmas services his father dragged them to. He remembered one of the fiery sermons the priest had delivered, that homosexuality was wrong, how they were all going to hell. Nico never went back.

"Nico, for what it's worth, you're not in Italy anymore. Same-sex marriage is legal in all fifty states. That includes New York."

Did she just read my mind.

Hazel stood up to pack her plate away, and Nico retreated upstairs to finish off his chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would just like to say now that I have absolutely nothing against Christians, Catholics, or the Catholic church in Italy. But as a Catholic, I can say
> 
> that this is unfortunately the attitude a lot of religious people tend to take about homosexuality. If I offended any of the above groups, my apologies, that really wasn't what I meant to do here. But this chapter did need to be written and those issues did need to be addressed.


	11. Closets and Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just buddies being pals

Had to rewrite this because I lost the chapter along the way, but hopefully the content is still pretty much the same

To his credit, Nico did try to concentrate on finishing the chapter. But it was hard, when needling him in the back of his mind, was the decision that needed to be made. Eventually, he sighed and gave up, drumming his fingers on his desk. Should he, shouldn't he, should he? Shouldn't he-

He made an annoyed sound and resigned himself. It wasn't like he was going to get any work done today, anyway, and he had to at least try...He grabbed his phone from the desk and dialed Solace's number.

"Death Boy?"

"Sunshine. I- I"

"Woah, di Angelo,slow down, you okay?"

"What? Yeah, I just- I"

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"What? Nothing happened, I just-"

He'd been about to interrupt, but Nico cut him off, "Look, can you just let me finish?"

"Sorry, sorry," but there was a grin in his voice.

"So... So about the whole," he lost his voice halfway through and had to clear his throat. Come on, Nico, before you lose courage, "So about the whole, I'm about as straight as a rainbow and you're-"

Will had been completely silent before, but now he spoke up again, halting the other boy's sentence in its tracks, "I'm going to have to stop you there di Angelo."

"So you don't.."

"Nico, I've thought you were way too attractive for your own or anyone else's good from pretty much the moment you first stepped into the cafe. But this is just not the type of thing I want to admit over a phone call. I at least deserve a declaration of your undying love for me in person, don't you think?"

He went scarlet, "I-"

"Can you just... Come to the cafe, okay?"

He sighed as he entered the building. Stupid Solace, making him do this in person. It had been embarassing enough via phone call, and now he actually had to do it in front of the boy himself.

Said annoyance himself wasn't anywhere to be found amongst the waiters in the main area, so Nico went ahead to the back room. Suprisingly enough, no one stopped him.

He'd always had the impression that people actually worked in the kitchen, but apparently he'd been lied to. There was just a girl standing around and doing anything but. He didn't know how to describe her, aside from the fact that she was definitely not the person to fall asleep on in a slumber party, unless you were the type of person who liked waking up with shaving cream on your face and sharpie drawings on your arms. Mischievous, that was the word.

He thought he caught a flash of blond hair and blue eyes, but it turned out to just be another random person standing around in the kitchen, this time one by the sink.

The girl flashed him a knowing look, "Searching for Solace?" Nico glared at that, "he's in the supply closet."

The blond boy piped up, "The closet? I though he came out."

To this, she crossed the distance scarily quickly, effectively clamping her hand over his mouth.

"Please ignore everything that Lee's says. It's what we all do."

"Umm, okay. I'm just going the go over to the supply closet..."

The golden-haired boy, the proper one, not one of his co-workers this time, looked when the door opened. His expression switched to one of genuine surprise when he registered Nico standing there. He dropped the box he was holding and wiped his hands on his apron.

"di Angelo, I didn't expect to see you so soon."

"Yeah, well, I figured I might as well get it over with already."

"Don't say it like you're going to a funeral or something."

He elected to ignore that, going back to the shade of pink that seemed to be his set skin tone for the day.

"Look, Solace, you're pretty cute yourself, so can we just date or something? Because the anticipation is killing me."

He just raised his eyebrows and huffed out a breath.

"Okay, now you're killing me. Can you please just-"

He was effectively shut up when a pair of perfectly tanned hands grabbed a fistful of his shirt. He was pulled upwards onto the tip of his toes, but it still wasn't enough- which he had to admit was pretty humiliating- so Will bent down to close the gap. Their lips met and Nico stopped thinking, arms aound neck, fingers tangled in hair, running on instict. Next thing he knew, Solace was pulling away. And all too soon, he might add.

He was smirking just a little, "Am I forgiven yet? Then, almost mumbling to himself, "Damn, pretty sure I just earned Lou ten dollars."

Nico said something intelligent like, "Uhhh, Sooo, was that a yes?"

Will facepalmed.


	12. Roadtrips and Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written with Favorite Record/ The Kids Aren't All Right/ Jetpack Blues by FOB/This is Gospel by P!ATD listen to those at for the full effect

* * *

They hadn't been dating for long, but with the hand holding, the kisses, the hair that was just as soft as it looked...Gods, Nico could get used to this. And with Will having stayed over for the week, (Apparently, the black mold hadn't actually been cleared up, even though Solace had taken off. He'd been staying in a run-down motel when Nico threatened to either pay for his stay at an actual hotel or drag him over to his place til it was all cleared up. "You're not the only one who's allowed to be stubborn, Solace") life was looking pretty good. Even when the whole situation was sorted out and Will had gone back to his apartment and Nico had had to admit, he'd been kind of sad to see him go. One thing he really wasn't miss Will insisting on sleeping in his bed, and Hazel fanning herself at 100/mph whenever Solace went up to his room. But that didn't stop him from going down to the cafe the day after Solace officially left. Even then, he'd had to force himself to sit and read over his conversation with his editor on his laptop until closing time, and not run over there immediately. He was that pathetic, but he wasn't about to make it any more obvious anytime soon.

He flopped down at the nearest table, tapping his fingers impatiently across the surface until he registered a flash of unruly golden hair. Then a very chaste kiss on the cheek from very familiar lips.

"Miss me that much?"

Yes.

"Actually, I'm here for the bagels."

"Mhmm, keep telling yourself that."

"Fine, fine, you win. I just really missed the green tea Frappuccinos."

"You're cold, Death Boy," he whined. Then, "Lemme guess, you're going to insist on paying?"

"Do you even need to ask."

Lou Ellen seemed to appear from thin air.

"Actually," she fished out a wad of dollars from her pocket. Nico didn't even want to know," after all you boys have done for me, the least I can do is get this one. In fact, Will, why don't you take the day off, go spend some quality time with your significant other? It's times like these that either make or break the relationship. And you two want to last, don't you? Don't you two still want to be dating in say, a week?"

She shot a pointed glance at the group of waiters that were not-so-subtly watching from the kitchen. They scattered.

"In fact; why don't I go talk to the boss right now and get you some time off?"

"Well that was weird," Nico said as soon as she left, practically running to the door.

"Oh, I got desensitized to their crazy ages ago. It makes my life much easier. And besides, that girl has insane manipulation skills; she probably managed to get me paid leave til the endtimes. And I have been meaning to visit my dad.. Hey, you should come with, it's the perfect meet the parents opportunity! Well, I mean, parent. It's probably a little soon, too...

Nico?"

"Huh?" he jolted suddenly. He'd been spacing out again, staring at Will's blond eyelashes in the sun as he blinked, trying to work out they didn't get all tangled up.

"I mean, uh, that sounds great!"

He grinned, "You're the best."

Nico groaned, "Sei come la versione umana di un golden retriever. Bene, un golden retriever molto attraente. Beh! Che strano. E stai parlando a te stesso, Nico."

"Any chance you're going to translate that?"

"Gods, no."

"Aaaw, come on, that just makes me even more curious."

"Solace, can you stop talking to your boyfriend and slacking off, and actually bring your boyfriend his order?" came a shout that sounded suspiciously like Lee Fletcher from the kitchens.

Receding into his jacket seemed like a pretty good idea right now.

"Holy Hera I need a break from those two. If Lou Ellen doesn't manage to get me leave then I'm marching in there myself."

* * *

Will's car pulled up in the driveway, and Nico was halfway through lugging his suitcases down the stairs when he paused. Oh, gods, he couldn't do this. Why had he agreed to this? Stupid Solace's eyelashes. Stupid Solace.

"Hey, Nico?"

"Coming!" he yelled back, thumping his luggage down the last few steps, cursing when one of the two bags capsized.

He was leaning against his car with sunglasses, arms crossed, basically looking like the record holder for World's Biggest Dork. His face lit up when he saw Nico, immediately running over and giving him an actual kiss on the lips. Right, that's why he'd agreed to do this.

"Thanks for doing this. I know it's a little soon, but I figured I probably wouldn't get a chance like this anytime soon, and..."

"Hey, I'm always up for a mind-numbingly boring, forty-three hour road trips."

He grinned,"we'll see about 'mind-numbingly boring'."

* * *

Apparently Will's idea of entertainent was playing terrible music, and singing along to said terrible music loudly and so off key, it took a lot of effort to figure out what the line had originally sounded like. At first, Nico found it undeniably adorable. Sure, the song was so cheery it made Nico want to claw at his ears at his ears to make it stop, but with Will head bopping along and mouthing the words, he strained his face muscles trying not to grin. And failed. Then the dork started singing aloud, and it got a little annoying. Then a lotta annoying. Finally, Nico had to pull the phone out, ignoring Solace's protests, before he last his last shred of sanity. He replaced it with his own cell, scrolling down until he found a suitable song.

Will took it in silence for a while, then, "huh, that definitely wasn't what I expected."

He raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I don't knw, I guess I pegged you as a depressing heavy metal kind of guy."

"My ears can only take so much shouting. And with you and Lou Ellen in the cafe, I don't need a second dose."

"Why do you think I needed to take a break. Those two will be the death of me."

"Don't you sound like a very concerned mother. Like I said, choiccia."

"I'm not- Fine, fine. But trust me, in my class, almost all the med students are like that."

"Hey, this music is actually pretty good," he added.

"Why do you sound so surprised?"

"What's cocky in Italian?"

"Spavaldo."

"Spavaldo," he repeated.

Nico snorted.

They fell into silence, until Will started up singing along again.

" _But they haven't seen the best of us yet_

_If you love me let me goooo_

_If you love me let me goooooo_ "

Great, now Panic! At the Disco was ruined for him. Nico gave knocking his head against the window until he passed out some serious thought. And then, mercifully, it stopped.

"Hey, what's your family like?"

He sighed, not answering for a while.

"It's- it's really complicated. And confusing. I don't think I can really explain it."

_Well, I probably could. I just don't want to think about all of that right now. Let alone share it out loud to Will Solace, of all people._

It wasn't that he didn't think that highly of him. In fact, it was because he thought so highly of him. He just seemed so bright and happy all the time. Like everything was okay all the time. Will Solace radiated 'life is simple. Things don't need to be complicated unless you make them out to be.'

He just didn't think Solace would understand.

"I can respect that. Heck, I understand that. I have more half siblings than I can count, and I've barely met half of them. It's weird, but I guess that's the way my family is. I guess I've just come to accept that."

Well, that was...unexpected. And before he knew it, he was talking, tripping over words and not stopping. Will stopped talking, so he started.

"I've never stayed in one state for longer than a year. In fact,I moved to NYC a year ago, that was my choice, and this is my record-holding state. At first it was fun. When I was a kid, it was like an adventure, moving from place to place all the time. Then it got frustrating, moving schools all the time, getting my room just the way I wanted it, and then having to pack up and start all over again. I guess my stepfather hated it too, because he and my mom kind of split. He wanted to settle down, have Hazel, Bianca, and I all in one place, and just, be a family. But my mom just couldn't settle down, so they went their separate ways. He married a Persephone. His father was really into Greek mythology. Really, really. He wanted to name him Hades. Like I said, my family is confusing. He was almost named Hades and then he goes and marries a Persephone. And.. I'm rambling."

Will shot him one of his lopsided grins.

"You can carry on, if you want. In fact, I want to hear it. Is that where you got the idea to write about Greek Mythology?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, my grandfather, stepgrandfather, whatever, had a thick volumes full of the stuff. I used to just sit in the attic and read them until someone called me down for dinner. Every single English essay, every single English project, I swear, I managed to fit mythology into everything. I think my teacher gave up with the 'Nico, sweetie, don't you think you should branch out a little? Please, I'm begging you, if I have to read one more assignment about Poseidon, I'm resigning' speech somewhere around Christmas break. "

He practically giggled at that, and the butterflies in Nico's stomach felt like they were trying to make a break for it, hammering against the surface.

"If I were to tell you that my dad owns Apollo and Company, would you go into cardiac arrest?"

"Probably."

"Okay then, my lips are sealed. I'm taking a detour just to drive you to hospital."

* * *

After that, Nico didn't mind Will's singing too much. Yeah, to say it was out of tune would be an understatement, but there was something about it, some quality, that almost made it bearable. Maybe it was the exhaustion from travelling, but he felt his eyes growing heavy. He had to blink to keep them open, and Will looked even worse.

"Hey, maybe we should call it a night?"

He rubbed his eye and suppressed a yawn, "oh, I was thinking that ages ago. But I haven't even seen so much as a motel down this street."

Nico didn't say anything, struggling to stay awake. Solace started up singing again, which really wasn't helping.

" _And yes, but what a shame_

_what a shame the poor groom's bride is a-"_

"Found one!" he yelled suddenly.

"Oh, thank gods. I was about to pass out at the wheel."

Nico was practically carrying him as they made their way to the abandoned lobby, which was not his idea of fun, considering that Solace was basically twice his size.

The lady at the desk all but glared at them, and Nico returned the favour. After what seemed like an eternity, they made it up to the room. There was only one bed, but he was too exhausted to care, collapsing next to Will, who was out cold in point seconds. Nico curled up, not even bothering with blankets.

In his last few minutes before tendrils of sleep claimed him, he thought about everything. He was going to visit Will's family in a few more days. Maybe even tomorrow, if they really pushed it. Maybe it was just the exhaustion, but he found that he really didn't care. If they were anything like him, he had no reason to be the bundle of nerves he'd been that morning. Will would meet his family was strangely okay with that. He'd already met Hazel, and that had worked out just great. Maybe they'd fight sometimes, maybe they'd even split once or twice. But one thing he was sure about; he was really glad he'd gone to that cafe, really glad said cafe had _choiccia_ , med student dorks for staff, and really glad that med student had decided a certain anemic customer really need a croissant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this when I thought I was done with the fic, so this seems like an ending, (because I wrote it as one) but I'm not done yet


	13. Parents and Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi I suck at writing and this is kind of old. Enjoy!

Almost impossibly, (at least, it seemed impossible, given how long they'd actually been driving, and how many motels they'd crashed in for the night. It was almost like the good 'ol days of his mama dragging them out of the state as soon as they'd settled in) but they finally made it to the big 'Welcome to California' sign after a great four days later. (It wasn't like he'd been counting, or anything) They would have have made it in less, if it hadn't been for the car breaking down, and for the fact that the two of them together still had car repair knowledge in the negatives. And no, he wasn't overexaggerarting, they actually ended up confusing the couple who stopped over to help them, and they seemed to actually know what they were talking about. At least, they did before Will and Nico had gotten to them.

Will looked visably relieved, "Gods, it's amazing to be back in my home state. Don't get me wrong, New York is great, but it's not as beautiful as CA. "

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Really? All I see is grey sludge."

He grinned, "Hey, be respectful, it's California sludge. That automatically makes it way better than Manhattan sludge."

"Not like you're biased or anything."

"Of course not."

Will had looked ready to pass out at the wheel before, but it was like he was buzzing with energy now, just from being in his home state. Nico could almost smile at that... And probably have his mental stability questioned for randomly smiling at the window for absolutely no reason at all, but oh well.

Will kept his eyes on the road, humming something under his breath. And- was that My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark? Maybe his music taste wasn't beyond hope, after all. (Nico had had more than just a helping a helping hand in that, but still)

Just another few hours to wherever it was they were going.

"And I just realised I have no idea where you live. I'm just hoping it's not, like Malibu, or something."

He was suddenly very busy driving, successfully avoiding Nico's gaze, despite the fact that most sane people were off the road at gods-forsaken hours of the morining- actually, nope, the road was about as full as Manhattan, on a bad day.

Will was all but whistling innocently and twidling his thumbs.

"Please tell me you didn't spend all of your free time surfing on the beach."

"I didn't always surf!" he said defensively.

"And you're all blond, tonned, and tanned. I can't believe you right now."

"I know, I know, I am the reason Californian stereotypes exsist. "

"If your dad is a surfing teacher or something, I swear."

"Okay, not even I go that far. He owns his own music shop. Well, that's his thing right now. He's actually kept one of his 'things' going for almost five years, now, that's a record."

Nico gave him a questioning look.

"I should probably warn you, anyway. He just be a bit," Will just made vague hand gestures with his one free hand. Well, that explained everything, "Normal people usually have one midlife-crisis, maybe two. I stopped gave up counting by the time I was in eighth grade. I can actually organise the stages of my life one of his obsessions after the next."

"Really? When you were ten?"

"He owned a pottery shop. That was also the year ukulele was officially ruined for me."

"Twelve?"

"I still never want to hear another Limerick again in my life."

"There once was a man from-"

"Nico, babe, I will open the driver's seat and throw you out of this car. While it's still moving."

"And here I was, legitimately thinking that there wasn't a single violent bone in your body."

"Limericks bring that out in me."

"Good to know..."

There was a silence, mostly filled with Nico fearing for his life and questioning how non-threatening Solace really was.

"Hey, does your dad know?"

He hummed, rising it at the end to make it into a question.

"You, know, us; being a couple."

"Nah, I was just going to kind of spring it on him when we got there."

He looked over, startled.

Will snickered from the seat next to him, and Nico glared. Which, of course, did not deter Solace in the slightest. He did lean over and peck him lightly on the cheek.

"Isn't that breaking, like every road safety law? For shame, Jersey Shore."

"Did you just-"

Nico compleletly lost it, even though it probablywasn't that funny. But hey, everything is funny at four am, "I'm so calling you that from now on."

"Actually, that was Miami, but I'll give it to you.

Seriously though, my dad couldn't exactly be against it, he's okay with it. Actually, a lot more than okay."

"You mean," he trailed off.

"He's had his fair share of boyfriends, yes," he took in Nico's face and added, "hey, bisexuality is a thing."

"It's not that, it's just-"

He really didn't want to get into that, so he opted for subtly switching the subject. And by 'subtly', he meant 'completely obliviously, without even attempting to mask it as something else'.

"You know, I lived in CA for a bit."

Will raised an eyebrow at the sudden change of topic, but didn't press it any further. He breathed an actual sigh of relief.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but it wasn't my favourite. Mostly because, you know, I was the only one not out to get melanoma 24/7."

"Hate to break it to you, but the media has fed you lies, there are actually pale people here. "

"Yeah, well, I did it before it was cool," he said it with so much irony it practically dripped onto the floor mat.

"Wow, would you like a beanie and a starbucks with that?"

"You're forgetting the glasses."

"And the triangles."

"Is it just the media feeding me lies again, or is Malibu actually really freaking expensive? You know, residence and stuff."

"Actually, that part is true. Let's just say the sum of money used to buy a beach house in Malibu is enough to keep an unemployed person afloat for a good couple of years."

"Sooo, your dad could easily pay for your full tutition fees, rent, food, the works?"

He shrugged," Yeah, but I'm stubborn."

"What? You, Stubborn? I would never have guessed," he deadpanned.

Solace just grinned unapologeticall and went back to focusing on the road.

Nervousness settled itself in the bottom of his stomach as the unmistakable blue of the ocean filled out more and more of the expanse of the horizon.

"You do realise I didn't actually live in a beach house in Malibu, right," Will spoke up from the driver's side, suddenly breaking the silence. He phrased it more like a statement than anything else, like it was obvious.

"What?"

He snorted adorably, "I'm from Santa Monica."

Nico nodded vaguely in response.

Ever the choiccia, Will picked up on his anxiety about the whole thing.

"You have nothing to worry about, he'll probably make a bad haiku about our relationship."

"Well that settles it, I'm officially out."

Solace just grinned again, "You don't know the half of it."

"Dad jokes?"

"Yup."

"Bring it on."

Before he knew it, he was unpacking his suitcase from the trunk of Will's car and wheeling it up to the house. Well, trying,anyway. Have you ever tried pulling a suitcase over beach sand? Not exactly easy. But he was almost grateful to have that as an excuse to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. Until his far-too-nice-for-his-or-anyone-else's good boyfriend took it from him and proceeded to manage two suitcases along the sand, without either one capsizing. Nico huffed, successfully blowing his bangs out of his eyes for a second, before they settled back down again.

"Showoff," he muttered.

"Of course," he stuck out his tongue.

Nico snorted, "What are you, twelve?"

"Yes, on a scale of one to ten."

"Well someone got all of their comebacks from Tumblr."

He grinned, then was suddenly serious.

Will nodded in the direction of the house, "I'll just go ahead of you."

He all but sprinted with the suitcases to the front door. Well, that was weird...

Nico sighed and trudged through the sand towards the building, made into an almost silhouette in the early morining light.

He took back his suitcase at the doorway- Will had left it there for him- and wondered if he should head inside. Well, the door was open.

He stepped out into the living room and took in wooden flooring, baby blue couches, a few scattered string-instruments either sitting on stands or just laying around, a counter stacked full with family portraits and empty vases. Nico just couldn't stand still, actually pacing with nervousness, so he crossed the distance and picked up a frame in the hopes of distracting himself. Because apparerently already reached that level of creepy boyfriend within the two minutes he'd been in the house. He groaned- it was a baby picture, to top it all off.

There was a smiling woman next to him in the frame, with wavy golden hair cut close to her jaw, and a splash of freckles on her cheeks. The only thing that cut her off from looking creepily like Will's exact clone were the light etches of worry lines -so light that they were basically just an impliction, but there nonetheless-, and a row of small red spots across her cheek(*). He didn't have to be a Sherlock to figure out who she was.

He looked closer, almost taking the creepy to a whole new level and smiling. There was an inscription on the lower half of the frame that read Naomi Solace, 1983-2005

The sudden opening of a door startled him into dropping the frame back onto the counter top.

Yeah, because that would fool anyone. What, looking at random family portraits? Him? *suspicious dropping noises* Pssh, nope.

A snatch of the conversation made its way downstairs.

"-great, but I really miss the CA beaches," Will's laugh," and I can just hear Nico's 'really?' from here."

Another voice, one he didn't recognise this time, "That loyal to his home state?"

"He's Italian, actually."

That was about all he caught before the footsetps stopped abruptly.

All he could hear was a mumbled exchange, a few words jumping out every now and then. Then silence, followed by the unmistakable sound of two pairs of feet starting up again- this time on the padded staircase.

He might've forgotten how to breathe, and was very aware of just how much his palms were sweating. (This was what a heart attack felt like, right?)

Aside from all that, he reacted pretty calmly. You know, like a normal person would.

If he'd thought Naomi Solace looked like Will before... scratch that. In fact it took him longer than it probably should have to figure out that his boyfriend had not actually walked down the stairs twice, Apollo just looked pretty much exactly like him- give or take a few years.

The man in question gave an easy smile almost immediately, and Nico thought he pretty much had him pinned down in the first five seconds of their meeting.

He probably had himself convinced that he could charm his way out of almost everything- or at least, he always tried his damnedest to, anyway- he would bet away the deed to his house that Naomi was far from the first partner he'd had, and was definitely not the last either.

"It's Nico, right?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (*) early symptom of leukemia
> 
> Well, this was getting a bit too long, and it's taken me so long to write this, so I'm going to split it into two. I was thinking of writing two or three of these at the end like a couple of other writers have done, but we'll see how this goes.
> 
> -He's-Beauty out!


	14. Haikus and Coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realised I havent updated this is forever rip

"Yeah, Nico di Angelo."

"di Angelo? As in the wife of my old business competitor?"

Nico must've looked extremely confused, because he elaborated.

"Oh, I owned hospital just across the road from Hades' Funeral and Embalming."

"You ran Apollo and Co?"

Will gave him a look like,  _what did I literally just tell you five minutes ago?_

"You're looking at Apollo himself. But you can call me Fred," he winked,"I'm going incognito."

Nico blinked.

"Careful, dad, I don't think he fully grasps the concept of any form of joking that doesn't involve sarcasm."

"Really? Then why are you even dating him?"

"At this point, I don't even know."

"WOW," Nico said. Will just grinned unapologetically.

"I feel a haiku coming on."

"Dad, please no."

"Ah, come on, you knew one about your relationship was inevitable."

Nico counted out syllables on his fingers while they bickered. Was it five then four then five again? He took out his phone and searched it, then counted again.

"He is annoying,

uses me as an armrest,"

After having a first-hand experience of how violent Jersey Shore could be, Nico decided it best to end off with a;

"But I love him anyway?"

Will looked at him with an expression of complete and utter betrayal. Nico shot him what could only be described as a shit-eating grin.

Will's father (Nico decided to just go ahead and call him Apollo) nodded extremely approvingly, first at his son (probably for his good taste in men), who'd taken up pinching the bridge of his nose and looking extremely done with both of them, then at Nico.

"The last line is six syllables though. How about -" he carried on to himself for an impressive amount of time.

Solace finally looked up, only to glare at Nico," I blame you for this."

He shrugged," that's fair."

Apollo finally stopped after a while and Nico quickly spoke up before anything else happened,"Wait, before you said 'business competitor'?"

"Well, having a funeral home right across from my hospital didn't really give off the right idea to my patients' families."

"Oh, right..."

A pause.

"So, the name Maria di Angelo ring a bell?"

"Yup," he popped the p at the end, "that was her."

Apollo opened his mouth to say something, probably along the lines of " 'Was?'", when Will spoke up.(which Nico was immensely grateful for)

"Hey, dad, if you don't mind, I'm going upstairs. It's been pretty long couple of days, what with the drive and everything."

Apollo shut it, opened it again, only to inhale, then close it. He settled for just nodding. Nico decided to awkwardly go on ahead while Will stayed back and talked for a few minutes. He padded up the stairs and set his suitcase down in a random part of the hallway; hoping he would find it again, but not willing to put any actual effort into preventing that problem. He then proceeded to poke around in doorways until he found a shower. It would probably be considered rude, but hey, he'd devoted his entire life to being less than polite and now was not the time to rectify that. A couple minutes later and the hot water was running, he unwillingly groaned it was so good to have hot water after days of the freezing showers he'd had to take in the motel. All too soon, he had to turn it off to change into his old clothes (there was no way in Hades he was doing the alternative of just a towel) to go hunt down his luggage again.

Later, in a fresh set of clothes; after the days on the road, that was basically heaven. All he needed next was to catch up on many,many hours of sleep, and he'd be able to die happy. And in that line of thought, Nico went back to looking in doorways, this time until he could find Solace's room. Hey, two could play at that game. He dived starfish-style backwards onto the duvet duvet covers printed in sunshine yellow, (really Solace, really?) crawled under the covers, and was out in about the same amount of time it takes for a light to go out after you flip the switch.

* * *

"I'm surprised you didn't opt for the 'face-down on a laptop keyboard' sleeping option this time."

Nico pulled the covers over his head and hoped that the annoying and suspiciously Californian-accented noise would go away if he ignored it hard enough. Sadly, it did not.

Instead, it managed to shrug and say, "Character development, I guess."

He tried the approach of blocking his ears with a pillow and wondering what the source of annoying sound was doing bothering him at godsforsaken hours of the morning.

"Come on, Death Boy, we have things to do. You haven't even had In-n-Out and that needs to be fixed."

" _Golden Retriever_ ," he mumbled to himself.

He decided to just get up, because he'd already said something, which was basically just admitting defeat. Solace looked at him like he'd just realised something.

Nico was suddenly very interested in the digital alarm clock on the bedside desk. Apparently, it was the godsforsakenly early hour of two pm.

"Did you just call me-"

"No, it was in Italian, you don't know what I said."

"But I-"

"Nope,  _Italiano_."

He splayed his hands in defeat, but he didn't lose his his wide grin, which Nico had a bad feeling about.

"So, 'we have things to do'?" he prompted.

The grin grew even more, along with Nico's distrust.

* * *

He pulled his ridiculous sun hat even lower over his eyes. "I hate you."

"No you don't, you love me- that's why you came on this trip with me. Besides, you already professed your undying love-"

"Well, I wouldn't say undying, more-"

"-for me in Haiku form. Ily too, by the way," Will cut him off in the midle of his interruption. Rude.

He made a valiant effort to kiss Nico on the cheek, despite the layers of clothing he'd put on specifically to cover up from the sun. Nico sunk his face even deeper into his jacket.

* * *

He sat in the shade for what seemed like forever while Will- who seemd insistent on fufilling all Californian stereotypes- surfed the waves. He wasn't very good; he lost balance and capsised more times than Nico cared to count, but the view was definitely nothing to complain about. And it was quite endearing to watch Will emerge completely soaked, push the drenched bangs out of his face, and give Nico an adorable grin and two thumbs up.

Well, the first couple times, anyway. The Californian had done just that for the umpteenth time.

" _Sgobbone_ ," Nico mouthed. Will had long since heard that enough times to put two and two together and worked out what it meant.

He just rolled his eyes in response, and then swam over to where his board had landed. This time, it happened to be right next to what looked like a woman and her two tweens, where it had floated right over thwacking the woman. Will grinned apologetically. After the mother had scolded him for a few minutes, he gave what was probably a sincere apology. The woman just smiled and shook her head after him. Leave it to Solace to get on everyone's good side.

Nico was too busy searching the waves and trying to figure out where Will had gone to see him approaching-until he was a few feet away. Oh no.

"You can't just spend the entire time at the beach sitting in the shade, sweetheart."

"One, I beg to differ, and two, okay,  _do not call me sweetheart_."

"What about Sugar?"

"Definitely not."

"Honey?"

"Nope."

"Pumpkin?"

"Negative."

"Milk?"

"Okay, wha-"

"Preheat the oven to three hundred degrees?"

He looked extremely pleased with himself for that one, which made Nico even more reluctant to smile at that.

"Well, in that case, I'm using all of those from now on."

"Two can play at that game,  _Polpetto_."

"What?"

"It literally means meatball."

"And that's a term of endearment?"

"Mhmm."

"Italian is weird."

"Hey, you can call people food items in English without it being weird."

Will shrugged.

" _Cucciolo_ ," he added.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing."

Stop distracting me on purpose.

He sighed," Fine, I'll go," Will grinned, "But on the condition that I am not doing  _that,"_ he gestured at the surfboard.

* * *

He would have liked to say that it had been fun. But it really hadn't, even before it had happened. It was wet, it was sandy, it was cold. It just wasn't that amazing. He was fine standing on the shore with just the occasional wave making contact with him, but Will dragged him out to waist deep. Well, Nico's waist deep, and Solace's halfway up his thighs. It was then that Nico was fully convinced that the ocean hated him, because there was a sudden pain wrapped around his calf. At first, he thought it was just a piece of fire coral or something, but that in itself was enough to send him limping back to the sand to check it out. He made it about half way there.

"Seriously, Nico, is ten minutes all you can take?" he stopped himself and then continued, "It's fine if you want to go back home though."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure I just got stung."

"By what- Oh, that."

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah."

He very convincingly took two- well, steps was a strong word, more like short limps- then yelped and stopped. Will nodded, then picked him up, bridal-style.

"Seriously, Solace, I-"

"Oh, please. With that act, you can't even convince yourself that you're fine."

He carried Nico over to where they'd left their stuff, bundled it up, and handed it to him.

He cursed in Italian, "Pretty sure their are some tentacles still on there," he inspected his calf, "yup, defnitely."

Will looked up from typing on his phone," Well, now I know half of what you say in Italian- you really seem to like that word. Anyways, I'm just taking you over to the lifeguard tower. There should be a first-aid kit there."

Solace set him down carefully on a towel once they were inside the building. He absently took things out of the kit box in between glances at his phone.

"Sorry, can you wait here for a sec? Says I need seawater."

He spent the next few minutes treating it, Nico didn't even pay attention to what Will was doing, all he knew was that it stung (no pun intended) all the way through.

"Can you hurry it up?" Nico snapped, and then winced," sorry, tempermental at the best of times."

He got an unaffected grin, "Don't worry about it."

The med student carried on with things like vinegar and hot water. Nico found himself surprisingly unsurprised that Will had managed to get hold of that at a beach. Finally, he put a cold soda bottle on the reddened area.

"You did great, you deserve a lolipop."

"Thank you?"

"Not you, me. You did nothing."

"Excuse you, I did all the panicked limping to shore."

"My apologies, you were the true hero of the day."

"Exactly."

Will carefully lifted him up off the towel. "Guess that wasn't exactly best start for you, huh?"

"It wasn't all bad."

"Aww, 'cause I was there?"

"Actually, I take it back, it was terrible."

Solace grinned.

"Well, don't you worry because tomorrow is going to be much better. Partly because I don't think it could be any worse than that and partly because you can't go wrong with In-N-Out."

* * *

**_Translations_ **

_**Cucciolo- term of endearment meaning puppy/cub** _

**_Sgobbone- dork/nerd_ **


	15. Burgers and Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lost Chapter TM

This time, he rolled out of bed bright and early. (i.e., before 10am) Of course Will was already up.

He stretched, "Morning, Sunshine. What's on the itinerary for today?"

"First, breakfast. Don't worry; I'm going to make sure you eat a tonne." (Solace was definitely a feeder)

"Yay," he deadpanned.

"I should probably wake my dad first... If you find my body, remember to call the police."

Nico rolled his eyes at his dramaticism, "Noted."

Will was halfway out the door when he turned back, "Did- did you seriously sleep in your clothes? You slept in skinny jeans," he paused, "all night?"

He shrugged.

"Dude, that is so not normal."

* * *

Will flicked out a grocery list with his one hand, the other firmly planted on the steering wheel, "Well, first up, we have to get a few things."

"And then?"

He shrugged, "No idea. Whatever happens, happens. In-N-Out's involved somewhere, that's all I know for sure."

"So we're just driving around, being a couple, not sure where we're going to do or where we're going, but making it up as we go along?"

Will nodded.

"This is the plot of a John Green novel, I swear."

"Well, give or take some cancer."

"And the heterosexuality."

Will laughed at that.

"So if John Green wrote a bad coffee shop au that lead into a bad road trip au, that'd be this."

"Don't forget the gay."

"Please, I _bring_  the gay."

He grinned, "That, and I'm fresh out of deep, thought-provoking, maybe even life-changing quotes."

"I don't know, man, I'd make 'don't forget the gay' my life motto."

"We could get matching t-shirts; 'Don't forget the gay' 'Please, I bring the gay'."

"Don't even joke about that, I'd do it."

* * *

Nico was idly leaning against the side of the car and staring at the now empty shopping cart while Will packed the last few packets into the trunk, when a thought occurred to him. In what was totally one lithe and swift and graceful movement and one which especially did  _not_ involve a good deal of scrambling and occasional slipping, he climbed into the cart. He extended a hand to Will.

"Wha- di Angelo, what you are about to do is extremely irresponsible and dangerous, and you could get seriously hurt."

"I know. You joining me or what?"

Solace grinned, one of those adorably dorky smiles. But he hesitated.

"Do you trust me?" Nico spoke again.

In answer, Will stepped up onto the edge of the cart, elbows resting on the handle

"Did you just reference Aladdin?"

"If you start singing A Whole New World, Jersey Shore,  _I swear_."

With an almost maniacal smile that just didn't look right on him, Will set his foot on the ground and pushed off with it. He repeated the motion a couple of times until they'd picked up enough speed. Nico grinned widely as the cart sped across the parking lot. It was great for a few minutes- until he saw that they were headed straight for a couple of bushes that, to put it lightly, did not look like fun to crash into at full speed. At that realisation he instead cursed loudly. As promised, they made full impact, and Nico got a faceful of leaves, twigs, and scratches. Then dirt as he hit the ground face first.

He wiped it off unsuccessfully with his sleeve, "Well, that's definitely going to bruise."

"Unbelievable sights, indescribable feelings," Will sang weakly from somewhere in the foliage.

Nico decided to not respond to that. Instead, he groaned and said, "Next time I want to do that, remind me why it's a bad idea."

"Personally, I think it was totally worth it. In fact, let's do it again!"

"You, are freaking sadist."

Will shrugged. "Anyways, we should go. In-N-Out solves everything."

"I can think of at least five problems that In-N-Out would not solve."

"Yes," he dug his keys out his pocket, "but that's 'cause you're morbid."

Nico snorted," Says the person who looks at happy recovery moments in hospital dramas and says 'That would not happen'."

"But it wouldn't! People don't just wake up from month long comas and recover immediately," he protested.

"Nerd."

"Says the person who swears in Greek Mythology terms."

"That's not-"

But he didn't have a good response, and they both knew it.

" _You still have all the Mythomagic figurines_."

"I-" he flushed, "shut up."

* * *

"So…"

Nico looked over.

Will continued, "Can-can I ask you a question?"

"Ah, the one phrase that gives people extreme panic trying to remember everything they've ever done wrong in their life."

He smiled absently, "You talk pretentiously."

"True. Now stop changing the subject."

"Okay… I've always kind of wondered- well, not always, you know, you were first a customer and then I didn't even know you that well, but you know what I mean. Anyways-"

"Breathe, Will."

"Yeah, I nervous ramble, it's what I do. So, um, how do you even afford a house? More specifically, a house like that? I mean, does writing seriously make that much? "

"That's what you were too nervous to ask?"

"Well… yeah."

"You're so kind and considerate- I don't think it's healthy."

"Who's changing the subject now?"

"It's just-"

He stopped, sighed, and thought it over. It wasn't really anything he talked about or willingly thought about.

"You 'don't really want to get into that right now'?"

He sighed.

"Actually, it doesn't make that much. You were probably thinking that what I did was more along the lines of having my own, publishing, series **?** Actually, I'm just one of the many, many people writing chapters. It doesn't make much, but it's something."

"Then how-"

"You're right; I don't really want to get into that right now."

Will blew out a long exhale through his bottom teeth, sounding suddenly annoyed. Neither of them said anything for a while.

"Yeah, well if not now, then when, Nico?"

"Excuse me?" he said in genuine surprise, because, well, that came out of nowhere.

"You heard me."

"Where did that even come from?"

"'Where did this come from?'," he sounded real annoyed for a second, and looked it too. Then he took a shaky breath and shook his head slowly, like he was clearing it or something.

They both sat in silence, the good mood drained like water through the cracks in the car doors. It was the start of something slowly building; just awkward at first, but an argument was coming- that much Nico knew for sure. He wasn't sure when, or what it was going to be about, but it hovered in the air in the form of unspoken words. He found himself wishing he could start it, get it over with, not just sit and wait for it to happen. Only problem was, he wasn't sure where to start. So, he was forced to sit in agitation. Will didn't seem willing to argue this out, which only added to Nico's annoyance. Did he think just because he ignored it, it was going to go away? That this wasn't just going to build up? That it wasn't necessary for clearing the air, getting it out of their systems?

"Look, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

But he sounded tired, like he was forcing it against his better judgement. This surprised Nico. Will had never seemed the doormat type. He was nice, sure, but he was just as stubborn and had a habit of refusing to back down when it came to what he thought was good for people.(Especially, yes, when it came to Nico) And, knowing him, he probably thought opening up was good for Nico.

The car stopped but neither of them got out.

"Do you want to just...not do this?"

"What, argue?"

"No, actually, I think we should. Just... not do  _this_  right now," he gestured to the building.

"So you want to argue, you just don't want heart disease in a takeout bag?" he said it like he wasn't sure which one was unhealthier.

"Exactly."

"Okay, I think you should talk about things."

He nodded, "I thought as much."

Will tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, Nico fixated on the window. All of awkward silences he'd experienced before? Those were nothing compared to this strained, tense, uncomfortable stretch of space. This was going in circles and neither of them knew what to do to move past that. The building tension was wearing on the nerves that were already strung tight from the roller coaster of emotions from the day. One of them was going to snap, both of them could feel it. Will sighed again, sounding just as annoyed, if not more so, as before. And then, it happened; he exploded.

"You know what, fine. Don't say anything."

"Wh-"

" _If you say 'where did this come from' again, I swear."_

"Wha- Solace, you're being ridiculous."

And that was completely the wrong thing to say, but both parties were annoyed now.

"Oh,  _I'm_ being ridiculous?"

"My dad paid for it, okay! There, will you kindly leave me the hell alone now?"

"So that's what you were making into a huge deal? That's it?!"

"You know what, if you want the full story so badly- he just up and left the Levesques for my mom, right before he did the exact same thing to us. He just left her with Bianca and I. He didn't come back even after she died. He made arrangements, sure. But never , right before he went skipping off to Italy with a woman he barely knew, he came back into my life and tried to make amends by buying me a house like that'd fix everything. Problem was, I was neck deep in student loans and I wasn't exactly in the position to say no."

"And you haven't spoken since?"

He nodded once, briskly.

"Has he tried?"

He shrugged, which basically told the entire story.

"Let me get this straight." (Now did not seem like the time that neither of them were getting anything  _straight_  anytime soon)

"So you've cut off all ties with the only family you have left-"Nico opened his mouth.

"Hazel has made amends, hasn't she? She accepts them as her family, doesn't she?" He closed it again.

He carried on,"-Over some stupid grudge you've held for over ten years? You know, you've done your fair share of stupid shit over your lifetime, but that's the winner, right there."

"Excuse me?"

"Do you think I don't get it, Nico? Don't you dare say yes, because I get it. I really do. Do you think I could have six siblings from six different mothers and  _not_ understand? He on within the year my mom died, Nico. But you know what? I don't hold that against him. He's made mistakes, and he's still trying to fix them. But he's trying. And that's what matters. So can you just get over yourself for one second and move on?"

"You see, this is why I didn't want to get into it."

"Why, because you knew I'd be right?"

He muttered under his breath.

"Oh,  _don't you dare right now_."

"You want to know what it means? It means fuck off, Solace."

He shifted in his seat and left the car, slamming the door shut behind him. Solace didn't even try to stop him.

* * *

He'd been sitting on the park bench for- he wasn't even sure how long. Long enough, definitely. Long enough to have long since calmed down. But there was something he needed to do, and he'd needed to work up the courage to do it. He reached for his jeans pocket, stopped, reached again. This time he finally dug out his phone.

 _"_ __Ciao, posso parlare con Hades?_ "_

_"Sí, sono io. Con chi parlo?"_

_"Sono Nico."_

_"_ Nico? _"_

* * *


	16. Cali and Coffee

He spent who knows how long (ie like, an hour) listening to Hades talk, then summarising everything that had happened in the past ten years as best he could when he had finished; Nico talked about New York, the house. About Will. Because if Hades wasn't going to accept that front the start then there was no point in carrying on. He didn't say anything, just listened. So Nico moved on to California, the beach, Apollo- refusing to back down from the topic until he heard the honest opinion from the other end of the line. He paused and there was silence on both ends for a second.

Then Hades said," _ **Sono felice?**_ "Are you happy?

He considered that for a while. After all, he couldn't expect Hades to be completely honest if he himself was not.

" _ **Sỉ**_ ," he answered finally.

A pause, like Hades was nodding thoughtfully.

" _ **Allora questo è tutto ciò che conta.**_ " Then this is all that matters.

A beat.

Then, "Nico… I know I've made a lot of mistakes and I don't expect you to say yes, but would you like to come to Italy with me? You can even bring this Will of yours but you may want to sort things out first," he gave a short laugh, "…but I'm getting carried away. It's your choice."

" _ **Posso pensare a questo proposito?**_ " Can I think about it?

There had been more than enough rash decisions that had ended up going south all too soon, and Nico just wanted to think at least one decision through, not rush into it. This was a pretty big step and going in blindly to a country he only had vague- the 'not sure if he actually remembered it, not sure if he'd built fake memories after seeing old family photo' type- memories of was not the best idea.

Hades sounded slightly disappointed, but ended off with an, " _ **Certo**_. Take as long as you need."

And as he hung up and slipped his phone back into his front pocket, he couldn't help but think that this was the most responsible decision he'd made all day.

He wasn't really sure what to do next. Pro tip: having an argument with the person you're staying with is never a good idea. It's especially not a good idea to get out the car (the very one that had been your only ride for the entire time) when that argument gets heated. You will be left, sitting in a foreign state, in a foreign park, on a foreign park bench, not sure if you should go back to said person's house or not.

Nico sighed, sliding a hand up across his forehead to push his bangs out of his face. Then settled it to pinch the bridge of his nose as he sighed again. It was getting dark fast.

Then Good Decision Making (TM) graced him with its presence once again, What else are you going to do- delay the inevitable; sleep here? Rent a motel? That's going to make it ten times worse for you and you know it. Just go back now.

He got up, walking in the general direction of where he reasoned a bus stop would probably be, leaving the park bench behind him.

* * *

He wasn't sure what he had expected. Yelling, more arguing maybe. Awkwardness, definitely. And awkward it was; it settled in the air like a tangible thing- as thick and as warm and as uncomfortable as one especially humid day in the middle of Florida in summer. It mixed with his unease; the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen next. Like someone was going to jump out, yell 'Surprise! ( **AN:Bitch, I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me** )' and start arguing with him at any moment.

He did not expect to slide open the glass door into the living room, to find only Apollo- taking up half a sofa, tuning a guitar or something- with no sign of Will anywhere.

"He's in his room," Apollo said without looking up from the instrument. He gave it an experimental strum, flinching at the sound it made. (Which sounded perfectly fine to Nico) He went back to adjusting various pegs.

He groaned at the thought of going back to find Will- start another argument. That was it, he'd had enough of that for a lifetime and he was done; You've just got to draw a line in the sand somewhere, say 'What am I prepared to put up with today?' Not fucking this.

Instead, he all but stormed to the balcony, flipping out his phone as he did so.

Hazel's face filled the tiny screen, "Hey, Neeks. How's it going?"

"Uhhh. Pretty good," he lied unconvincingly.

She raised an eyebrow in the universal sign of yeah, I don't believe you, but we'll talk about this later.

Frank raised a hand in greeting from the foot of her bed, not looking up from his book.

"Hey Zhang, you'd better be looking after my little sister."

"Always. You think I don't know you'd hop on the nearest plane to Canada the minute you heard anything different?"

Nico grinned, immediately feeling better. "And don't you forget it."

He couldn't help but like Frank, he was a pretty good kid.

Hazel shifted in the frame to get a better look at the background on Nico's side.

"That is not New York. Where are you right now?"

He ducked his head, hoping she couldn't see him flush in the night lighting, "Oh, uhm, about that… Well, you were right."

"Abouuut? She prompted.

"The waiter at the café. We're kind of um- dating? "

She squealed in frequencies only dolphins and bats could hear, so suddenly that Frank was startled off the bed and out of frame.* He groaned from the floor.

Hazel grinned sheepishly, "Whoops, sorry Frank," she leaned over to help him up," guess I just got a little excited."

Wisely, Frank moved over to sit on a chair leaned against the wall this time.

"So? What happened? Where are you? Is-"

"Hazel, slow down," but he couldn't keep the smile out of his voice.

"Sorry, I just- eeee, Nico this is amazing!"

"I'm actually in California right now- been here for almost a week. He asked me to meet the parent and we drove up here."

"Nico, I would hug you right now! I'm really happy for you!"

"Thanks, Hazel, really. But," he looked pointedly over at Frank, "there'll be plenty of time for all that at your wedding."

Zhang just grinned, "I don't know. By the sounds of it, your wedding is coming a lot sooner than ours."

The smile was contagious; it spread widely across Nico's face. Even Hazel was smiling as she shook her head.

He pushed himself off from the balcony railings, "Anyways, I should probably go talk to Will now."

"But you're telling me everything when you get back home, okay?"

"Do I even have a choice?"

"Nope," she said cheerily. Frank shot Nico a sympathetic look from behind her.

He was still grinning as he put his phone back and headed over to Will's door.

* * *

He rapped on the wood surface with the back of his hand a few times. No answer. He knocked again.

"Will- look, I'm sorry, okay? Can you please just come out so we can talk about it?"

He tried again, "Will, can you just-"

He even resorted to a few calls of 'Seriously, Solace?' and eventually a 'William', but all to no avail.

"You know what, fine then."

He was ready to give up and call it a day, but then again…

Nico all but ran downstairs, returning with one from a multitude of instruments lying around the place. He was renowned for his stubbornness, after all.

"Well, Solace, I am terrible at guitar, so you're in for a fun afternoon."

He'd moved through all the hits; including an, I chime in with a 'Haven't you people ever heard of opening the goddamn door' because he couldn't just not, and pretty much an entire album's worth of Twenty Øne Pilots because, "Aw, come on, you love Twenty Øne Pilots." (I wish I found some better sounds no one's ever heard, I wish I had a better voice to sing some better words, I really wish you would open this door, dammit Will) And even a couple of Disney songs because Love is an open door.

Still nothing.

He was starting to think that maybe he'd just been singing to an empty room when the door swung open. It happened so suddenly that he had to scramble back to avoid getting a faceful of wood.

Will stood in the doorway, bed hair sticking up in all different directions.

" _Please don't tell me you've been asleep this entire time._ "

He shrugged, annoyingly, "I was tired."

" _I have been singing outside your door for the past hour._ "

"Wait, why?"

"I didn't know! I thought you were just refusing to open your door or something. So you were supposed to be suffering because I can not play guitar. I think all I've managed to do was annoy Apollo."

"You thought I was still mad over the argument?"

"Well yeah."

He didn't say anything, but turned back to his room, gesturing for Nico to follow with one hand. They both sat on his bed.

"I was angry for like, the drive back home. And then I got over it. Look, I'm sorry I blew up. I just figured you were right, that we needed to talk about it. I just, "he shook his head, "didn't think it would get that…. heated. I still stand by what I said- holding grudges will get you nowhere. But it's not my choice, it's yours."

Nico didn't say anything, just fidgeted with his ring on his lap.

Will started again, unperturbed, "Well, going back is going to take some getting used to. I don't think it'll be the same; we've moved up, we've fought. I think we've hit the serious relationship milestone."

He finally noticed Nico's silence and sighed tiredly, "Look, Neeks, I don't want to argue. Please."

He shook his head, finally speaking up," I don't either. I'm just working out how to say this," a pause, "I'm not going back- not right away. I'm going to Italy."

"Wha- you want to….-it was just one argument, I didn't-"he had just about the same look on his face as a kicked puppy, and Nico felt like he'd been stabbed in the gut with a rusty fork.

" No no no, Will, we're not- No, I," he drew a breath, "You were right. I called him, I called Hades. He asked me to come to Italy to visit him. I said I'd think about it, but I called Hazel and it made me realise how important family is. I decided I have to at least try and make things right with him. "

"That's amazing, really, Nico," Will laughed and pressed his lips against his forehead," I guess you're not a complete idiot then."

"Hey, Will?"

He hummed.

"I'm going up for a month or so maybe? And then, do you maybe want to… come with?"

"I," a pause , like a period in the middle of the sentence," would love to."

"…So that's a yes?"

"Of course, Nico!"

He put out a hand for the guitar, and Nico handed it over.

Strumming, he carried on the conversation.

"We only have two days left whadduyou wanna do next?" (He said it exactly like that, like it was one word)

Nico shrugged, "To be as American as I can before I go back to Italy for who knows how long."

He nodded, "Got it."

Will started up playing louder, so that it was no longer just peaceful background noise, but took full attention.

" _You fell asleep in my car, I drove the whole time_

_But that's okay I'll just avoid the holes so you sleep fine_

_I'm driving here I sit_

_Cursing my government_

_For not using my taxes to fill holes with more cement"_

_Nico noted that he sounded better when accompanied by something. This singing was serious, not just singing along to a bad roadtrip playlist._

_"You fell asleep in my_

_car, I drove the whole time_

_But that's okay I'll just avoid the holes so you sleep fine_

_I'm driving here I sit_

_Cursing my government_

_For not using my taxes to fill holes with more cement_

_Sometimes you've got to bleed to know, oh oh_

_That you're alive and have a soul, oh oh_

_But it takes someone to come around_

_To show you how_

_She's the tear in my heart_ "

He stopped, then carried on with a;

" _I'm alive_

_He's the tear in my heart_

_I'm on fire_

_He's the tear on my heart_

_Take me higher_

_Than I've ever been._ "

Nico took it back and started one of his own,

" _How I wish you could see the potential,_

_The potential of you and me._

_It's like a book elegantly bound but,_

_In a language that you can't read._

_Just yet_

_You gotta spend some time, Love_

_You gotta spend some time with me._

_And I know that you'll find, Love_

_I will possess your heart._

_You gotta spend some time, Love_

_You gotta spend some time with me._

_And I know that you'll find, Love_

_I will possess your heart._

_I will possess your heart._

_I will possess your heart._ "

And they went back and forth, each one more cheesy and disgustingly romantic than the next.

* * *

_**Translations** _

_**Certo- certainly/ of course** _


	17. Goodbyes and Coffee

_It passed all too soon. First, there were endless days of just this; getting into Will's car, going somewhere planned or spontaneous, laughing and talking the journey away, starting a running joke or bringing one back. Sometimes the journey mattered more than when they got there, sometimes it was the other way round. Sometimes they stayed at home, messing around and grinning like idiots. Sometimes they poked too close to where the argument lay and awkwardly tried to do whatever and quickly sweep it under the rug._

_It became a routine, almost._

_And then, they glanced at the day and hurried to do everything they'd planned before their time was up. They packed into the car, wasting the entire day doing nothing, and came home with a greasy brown paper bag. They all three sat on the baby blue couches while Will tried to bridge the quiet between Nico and Apollo, eventually giving up and eating their meal in silence._

His feet hit the carpet.  _Last day,_ he thought to himself,  _I'd better start packing._ He hunted down old clothes strewn across the bedroom floor and stuffed them, unfolded into his black suitcase. Then, he moved to the hall, making his way into the living room, downstairs hall, passageways, running his hand along the walls as he picked up one or two items here and there. Back to the suitcase, then making the rounds again to make certain he hadn't left anything. Back to the suitcase to shove everything in and unsuccessfully zip it closed. He sighed and tore everything out, then folded everything one by one as he tried not to think about what he was packing for. If he thought about how he was going to be in Italy so soon, a country he hadn't so much as seen in over ten years, surrounded by people he hadn't so much as spoken to in almost as long, his brain started going in a never ending cycle;  _what if I really can't stand him? What if I just make it worse with Hades? What if it just really sucks in general and I can't leave? What if- Breathe, Nico._ His heart was still pounding with anxiety, but he ignored it and focused on folding clothes. His mind wandered again, this time to the events of yesterday.

 _Will pulled up to the sidewalk, leaning half an arm across the groove of his open window, his hair blowing in the wind._ And he had sunglasses on _. The only possible thing that could have made it worse would be him pulling them halfway down his face as he said whatever line he was clearly about to open with. He went with: "Get in, loser. We're going shopping." (Thankfully, the sunglasses stayed where they were)_

_Nico wound his way around the front of the car, opened the door to the passenger seat, and swung his legs in._

_"You are a dork," he announced._

_"Boo, you whore."_

_Will took in his confused look, "Nicholas di Angelo-"_

_"That's- that's not even my name."_

_"-Don't tell me you've never seen the cinematic masterpiece and absolute classic of our time."_

_"Uh…"_

_"Mean Girls."_

_"It's also the origin of at least four memes," he continued._

_Nico gave a neutral hum._

_"You need to watch it…," he trailed off as the fact that there was_ just no time to do anything sunk in,  _"…Sometime."_

_Nico opened his mouth._

_"No, you don't have any say in this."_

_Nico closed his mouth._

Will appeared in the doorway.

"You ready to go?"

"Not even a bit. Are we going?"

He took his hand reassuringly, "Hey, we've still got time. Come with me somewhere?"

"Sure, as long as it's not the beach."

"Uhhhh…"

"You've got to be kidding me," but he was up already.

He followed Will down the stairs, to his back door.

They stepped out onto the white sand and Nico immediately regretted his decision to wear sneakers.

"C'mon, I'm not taking you to the ocean, I swear."

They walked along a cobbled path (away from the ocean, just as Will had promised) for a few minutes. Will be walked on ahead, using his height advantage to weave through the crowd, as Nico tried his best not to get plowed down by multitudes of sweaty, strangely aggressive joggers. Eventually, Will had to physically march up to him, and hold his hand like a teacher with a particularly problem (and sulky) kid on a field trip.

They sat on wooden fencing, (Will's) feet just touching the sporadic patches of yellow grass. After some small exchanges, they fell into tranquil silence. They sat in tranquil silence, watching children scream and laugh and run. Watching somewhat sympathetically at one or two people almost knocked down by runners. ( _L'ho provato sulla mia pelle)_ The waves crashed in the background and the wind picked up slightly, swaying park trees' leaves. Nico leaned back and looked to the sky. He only looked back a while later when Will swore quietly, the time on his phone held in front of his face.

* * *

Two hours or so later, they were speed-walking across a white tiled stretch of floor, Nico tugging his suitcase behind him like his life depended on it. When this proved to be too slow, he hauled it up and carried it instead, all without the slightest loss in speed. It didn't help that Will was always a few yards ahead of him. Nico checked the time again, and all but sprinted to catch up, abandoning his pride along the way.

Amazingly, they made it. And with a few minutes to spare.

Will pushed his hair back and proceeded to take at least half of that time trying to get his breath back. Nico stood there and tried to pretend that rush hadn't brought him at least a year closer to death.

"So..."

"So."

"Two months or so- that's going to be quite a while."

"Let's not be that couple."

They both smiled.

And for once, Will was quiet and Nico carried on, "But yeah, I'm really going to miss you. I'll probably find time for that somewhere in between the yelling in Italian."

They were departing very soon.

"Just two months. Well, three months, tops. It'll pass in minutes, you'll see. Say hey to Lee and Lou Ellen for me. Tell them I'm definitely not going to miss them."

Will laughed a little at that.

"I don't know how I'll survive without someone to glare at me every 5 seconds. And I'll understand everything everyone is saying, can you imagine.

Oh, and I want to go to Venice too."

"Just for the Gondolas? Wait, don't answer that,  _of course you do_."

They kissed, briefly. And Will seemed intent on bruising all of his internal organs by squeezing him way too hard.

"Calm down there, Jason."

Nico headed towards the gate, turning back at the last minute.

"Just a few months, okay? And then, Will Solace, I'll be right back at that coffeeshop to glare at you from a table.

* * *

_**Translations** _


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